The Scenic Route
by SpiritHawk7
Summary: A winding detour through the past. What if Helen wasn't completely alone during her 113 year 'vacation? What if she was joined by another person who was supposed to have lived through all these years initially but didn't get the chance to?
1. Ch 1: 1898

**The Scenic Route:**

**A winding detour through the past**

_Author's note_: I've been toying with the idea of writing a Sanctuary related story for almost the past 9 years since I first started watching the show. This is just one version of events that I have in my head that's the most viable for me to publish. Most times it's me thinking of several different variations of random events but there's no real substance outside of maybe a 5 minute character interaction. The focus of this story is going to be more towards present day, so it will be skipping a lot through the past. Maybe a decade a chapter? Not sure. My goal really isn't to spend too much time fleshing out the details given to us about Magnus' activities in the past, but they will be included in order to help keep continuity.

_Disclaimer_: Sanctuary belongs to its rightful owners, especially the Big Three: Damien Kindler, Martin Wood, and Amanda Tapping. All characters belong to them (except for the OC I'm going to be adding in), and this story is inspired by their creative genius, falling mostly during Helen Magnus' 113 year 'vacation' back through time.

* * *

Time travel is an absurdly funny, but yet cruel thing, at least that's how Helen Magnus sees it. What shouldn't have been possible has now unfathomably happened to her. Being stuck 113 years in the past has inevitably forced her to take a step back and fully analyze this 'new' reality that she's in.

Not long after the incident with Adam Worth, Helen finds herself in a small flat just in the South of London near Kennington Park. She's been quietly receiving a small allowance from James for the last couple of weeks to rent the place. She knows she can't keep depending on James for too much longer, which is a financial issue she is keenly aware of, but at the moment, she has more profound things on her mind.

Due to the huge change in time zones, Helen has been very slow in adjusting to her new sleep wake cycle. Since the first night she arrived in 1898 London, she is still wide awake in the middle of the night as she lays on her bed staring up at the ceiling, with a cold cup of tea long forgotten sitting just off to the side. Helen didn't mind not sleeping much through the night, as she knew her circadian rhythm would eventually get used to the new routine. What troubled her again this night, like all the rest, were her thoughts going back to what Adam had tried to do, and her unwillingness to participate.

Over and over again, she faces the greatest of all temptations. At some point in everyone's lives they get asked the big 'what if' question, "If you could go back in time, would you change anything?". For Helen, and like most others, after quick thought would come to a conclusion and say "no" as they understood their past and accepted it, bad or good, as it essentially made them who they are. Also, because they knew wishful thinking can't change the past and that they had no choice but to move on. Only now, it's not 'wishful thinking' and Helen literally is stuck back in the past and can actually change things. Night after night she is plagued with memories of the past 113 years of her life, going over every major turning point in her history that she could remember; focusing on the outcomes of certain decisions she'd made, whether they fell in favor or not and if anything could be done about the less than favorable choices she's made. It gave her a baseline to contemplate.

She knows she'd be a massive hypocrite to allow herself to reap the benefits of time travel, while denying Adam the same pleasure, but unlike Adam, she ultimately still didn't want to change anything. Helen was very wary about the dangers of time travel and what it could mean if anything happened differently to the way history was supposed to write itself. James even understood that essential detail; the farther out you are from when you came, the bigger the ripple effect.

There was one thing Helen was certain of and it was that she absolutely could not directly interfere with the Helen Magnus of this era in any way. Of all the possibly causalities she could create by messing with the past, the most damning outcome would be to be stuck living in an alternate world where her daughter isn't a part of it, and that simply could not happen, ever.

So, this left her stuck. Like any human, the great Helen Magnus as stoic as she is, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to fantasize about capitalizing on her 'losses' in life. With the ripple effect at the forefront of her mind, she thought scrupulously over every detail and how any changes could impact all lives, not just hers. The trouble she faced was in how she was going to pull off being a 'smoke and mirror' character if she eventually acted on any event at all; to be an independent third party that takes advantage of the "good ending" without being noticed while simultaneously not at all changing the 'bad ending' the other Helen gets. Even though Helen has an exceptional memory, she couldn't possibly remember exactly where she was every single minute of every single day for the past 113 years. In order to not run into her other self, she would have to have a way of keeping tabs, which is where James dutifully comes into play. With his help, she'd be able to more effectively keep a safe distance from her younger self.

But when and where to start? Adam wasn't all wrong though, as this time period was, no, is a simpler and more elegant time. Compared to the time she came from, it is easier and less complicated for her to move about unnoticed, which is a major benefit to her. The biggest reprieve being that this era is in a pre-digital age where your movements aren't tracked by cameras almost everywhere you went. It was also a time where records were easier to falsify, another advantage for her.

This leads her thoughts to circle back around to her current financial situation. Whatever she'll eventually do or not do, it's definitely going to need to be bankrolled if she is going to have to 'hide in the shadows' for the next 113 years, costing more than James can support. And so this is where Helen decided to start first and focus her efforts around.


	2. Ch 2: 1900

**1900**

With James secretly by her side, Helen took the advice he first gave to her back in 1898 to heart; to sit back and reevaluate her position. It granted her the unique opportunity to see where she had been initially short sighted in her life the first go-around; not that she could have known so at those particular times. Hindsight is a wonderful tool to have, especially in this case where it's now become her foresight. To some people, it would be an amazing gift to know where the road of their life was leading, to others, maybe not so much. Helen could only hope that her earlier escapade with Worth didn't derail her younger self's path, diverting it from its ultimate destination as that was the only map she was following. So far, she hadn't seen any ill effects.

Over the last two years, Helen Magnus now going by Helen Bancroft, carefully constructed her plan and narrowed down her focus. As daunting of a task navigating time travel initially seemed be, to figure out how to proceed was revealed to be quite simple. On a rare sunny London afternoon, she decided to go back to the basics, feeling somewhat like a school girl again. After pretty much getting nowhere since establishing a small cash flow with a rudimentary financial network, it finally dawned on her to take her own advice. Something had clicked in her mind when she had read her last telegram from James about her other self's travels relating to the Sanctuary in regards to a new patient, prompting her to remember when she had helped James get back on track in solving the Spring-Heeled Jack case; the Sanctuary's first resident.

Following a philosophy exercise, she stripped herself down to her core. What made her, what was her purpose, her passion, what does she want, etc. Without a doubt, the top three things that came to her mind was that she was a mother, a doctor, and the leader of the Sanctuary Network. Her passion was medicine with a deep rooted innate desire to care for others of all kinds and to help bring the world together. That she possessed vast quantities of curiosity to learn about things that are hidden, wanting to help spread compassion for and knowledge about these creatures as they are often harmed out of fear and ignorance because they are simply misunderstood. She wanted to be a light, a beacon, a sanctuary.

Looking back at the history of the Sanctuary and trying to look forward at the way it was and would be heading after she rejoined the timeline gave Helen the firm foundation that she needed to establish her plan. A major problem that she found was that she didn't like how the Sanctuary got wrapped up in global politics and came under governmental oversights as the years passed by. With each passing abnormal incident, more interference took place, not just from outside organizations, but also from inside the structure of the Sanctuary Network itself. As much as Helen Magnus didn't fit the common mold of who society expected her to be, she unfortunately had to conform to the way the world worked around her; the Sanctuary wouldn't have been able to continue to exist if she hadn't. She absolutely loathed bureaucratic nonsense, but had to put up with it in order to secure funding and standing. She also noted that she created her own mistake by instating the Sanctuary Charter. At the time it was created, it was based on rules from an era that she didn't know anything different from. As time passed by, the world changed and the Sanctuary grew, but the charter did not.

Remembering her youth, she recalled already being tired of being forced at an early age into social constructs and dreamed of a world in which she could be free to follow her pursuits without any constraints holding her back. Now, with the aid of time travel, she was liberated. Even though she's having to relive the past, she certainly doesn't belong to this world anymore and its restrictions. This time around, she knows that there's so much more she can do. She knows of which windfalls to grab and which pitfalls to avoid. Before, she could only take what was given to her, but now, she's going to take what she wants.

What Helen wants is freedom for the Sanctuary.

And why not? With it being the turn of the century, 'anything's possible'.


	3. Ch 3: 1901 - 1902

**1901-1902**

Freedom for the Sanctuary would involve some major changes to its current structure on almost every level. To make 'Project Freedom' even viably work, it would have to take place completely in the dark, almost quite literally, and not just because of time travel. To fix the 'government' issue, Helen knew it would have to include the Sanctuary not only being physically 'off' of land controlled by any governments, but also visually out of any government's eyes. Throughout Helen's experience with the Sanctuary and just daily life (especially when the internet comes around), she found anonymity to be the best option above all else. Helen needed a stable location where she could continue to conduct her work in true secret, and the Sanctuary's current standing of 'hiding in plain sight' wasn't going to be sustainable for too much longer, and she knew it.

Her solution was to take tips from Praxis. A civilization that has been completely hidden from the surface for the last eight thousand years, completely protected from outside interference. With it being its own little bubble, it was able to continue to make advancements throughout its history without something eventually coming along the way to tear it down every couple hundred years, such as what continuously plagues the surface. The technological advances they've made are mind blowing, including medical treatments, transit systems, and architecture. All things that Helen can learn from and need to help advance the Sanctuary.

History repeating itself is inevitable, especially on the surface. Scribes have recorded repeated events since the start of recording history itself. One thing that repeats more than all else are acts of humans to 'control' things, whether land, people, ideas, etc. Even in Helen's respectively short 160 years before going back in time she's seen it happen too many times over already. The leading cause she knew was simple biology. Every creature wants to feel safe and to accomplish that requires the threat, not matter how big or how small, to be dominated and assimilated or eliminated altogether. It's a major factor behind why humans as a species have become as successful as they are; enabling them to spread across the planet. For the most part, just being human is usually not enough to feel completely safe with each other. 'Sameness' is also an important factor, as people are more comfortable around others if they can relate to each other on a more personal level. However, in regards to abnormals, being a fellow human is more than enough of a requirement. Helen, above all else, can agree to the need for Praxis and the Sanctuary to exist to help separate the two dominate groups on the planet. With a current majority population of over seven billion humans running around on the surface, she knows it's futile to try to bring the two sides together, not only because she herself has tried before, but because others have tried to do it both before and after her, and it's always failed in some way or another. With abnormals being the more fragile minority population, anonymity is a very good thing, and Praxis (simply in its existence alone) proves that. It gives strong backing to Helen's decision to move her Network underground.

For Helen, her want for control was over her work which is the Sanctuary. She used to have full control over her work because it used to be a private endeavor that she inherited from her father, but over the years it has 'unfortunately' had to become bought and paid for by governments, something that she is directly on a path to correct at this very moment. While the financial support factor of gathering funds was considerably simple as Helen could remember specific profitable investments over the years, it was the physical location factor that was more difficult to come by. From what Helen could remember of the holographic map, she knew where she could find certain arterial passages leading to Hollow Earth that were close to the surface, but she couldn't access them. The closest one she could find was down in an underwater cave just on the coast in Peru. At some point in time there must have been geologic activity that collapsed part of the cave entrance, making the tunnel inaccessible. In order to get to the tunnel, she would have to find a way to blast the rock out of the way. The best explosive medium she could think of that was invented and procurable at this time that could accomplish the job was nitroglycerin. Unfortunately, Helen didn't know much about the controlled usage of such a substance. Also, semi-unfortunately, she knew exactly a person who did and she was kicking herself for it.

Helen cursed, because of course it just had to be one of her closest friends and colleagues and member of The Five, Nikola Tesla. At this point in time, Helen knew that Nikola was in Long Island, New York working on the Wardenclyffe Tower. She also knew that her other self was also in New York at that very same time meeting him of all people. Helen knew that this would be very dicey. She would have to try create a situation in which neither Nikola nor her other self would notice her. Even if Nikola did believe that she was her past self, she couldn't create a situation that Nikola would remember and accidentally talk with her other self about if her other self wasn't also there for it. Luckily, both Tesla and other self were pretty busy at this time traveling back and forth from place to place that if Helen requested another trip with him to go somewhere he wouldn't think much of it.

Helen decided an in-person request was best as it took out the uncertainty of the postal system. She couldn't have her past self accidentally stumble across a letter from Tesla addressed to her and in it find a message detailing events between the two of them she had no knowledge about. So, what Helen did was 'extend' her trip visiting Tesla in New York for a day to 'plant a seed' to get him involved. After past Helen got on a ship to travel back to England, future Helen 'coincidentally' ran into Tesla in town the next morning. Tesla was a bit confused at seeing her and asked why she was still here as he had thought that she had already left. She told a half truth, half white lie depending on which way you looked at it. She said that just before she boarded the ship that afternoon that she got word from a contact about another allusive and rare abnormal in South America. She said that from the information she was given that she may need his help in capturing it, but she wouldn't know for sure until she visited in a few months after the New Year to scout out the location to confirm the information. She told him that she waited an extra day so that she could asked him in person if he'd be available to meet her there if it turned out that she required his assistance after all. Tesla didn't seem to have too much objections to the idea and agreed to the possible visit.

Once the year rolled over, Tesla expectantly received a telegram from Helen to meet him at a swanky hotel in Miraflores, Peru to discuss further specifics. During his trip down there, future Helen wined and dined him as best she could and eventually told him that she was trying to capture a species of multi-headed shark. Tesla wasn't sure how he'd be able to help until she mentioned her 'problem' in capturing it. That the sharks were located in a remote underwater cave and that she needed someone who had an expertise in using nitroglycerin to help open the cave wall up to make it more accessible to people, but also not cause it to collapse in on itself. Tesla certainly liked the challenge of using explosives and passed along the information that she needed none the wiser. He thanked her for the trip as it was a nice getaway from his current issues back in New York.

Helen made sure to quickly follow up with him not long after to inform him that while his advice had worked exactly the way it was expected to, that she had ultimately failed to capture one of the sharks all together. Helen did this intentionally as past Helen never had one of those sharks in her collection and this would prevent Tesla from further asking past Helen about the creature for some reason or another.

Now that Helen had access to the tunnel, she was free to explore it. She knew that she couldn't actually visit Praxis yet, but she could start to plan out where she'd build her new Sanctuary and how she would go about it.

* * *

_Author's note_: I started to write this chapter months ago at the end of April and got stuck on it halfway. For some reason I had both wanted to and didn't want to write about the events discussed in the deleted scene from the end of Season 4 between Helen and Tesla in her office. I don't know why. What I really wanted to do was to just skip this chapter because everything I do want to write about is actually in Chapter 4 and afterward, but I needed to write about as it had information about Helen's time in the past and possible involvement with Hollow Earth. So I left this for a while and worked on other material until I got some mojo to circle back to it. It's not perfect, nor very long, but I did have some difficulty in finishing it as I had to not only consider the information in the deleted scene, but also what Tesla was doing in real life.

I didn't really know how to connect New York 1901 to Miraflores 1902, and which Helen was the one who actually wined and dined him etc. and how much each Helen had a part in it. If Past Helen was the one involved with everything, but it was because Future Helen was the one who mysteriously tipped her off (possibly solving why future Helen had known about the sharks) or if the sharks were just a complete farce the entire time. The whole thing was just very messy and conflicting to think about. So I just tried my best to hopefully make this fit.


	4. Ch 4: 1912

**1912**

Like the start of any journey, time seems to start off slow and then before you know it, it's almost over. Helen has now reached her fourteenth year reliving the past. She still had another ninety-nine to go until she can rejoin her original timeline, but like most years the older you get, the faster they seem to go by. By now, Helen has purchased a few more residences around the globe, acting as safe houses for her to help hide her agelessness and to help expand her secret operation. Currently, this is only the start of her second week back in the UK and has returned to staying at her first flat for a short time being. After her run in with Tesla a decade prior, she decided to stay in America for a while, touring around the country before making her way up into Canada, then across the pond back into northern Europe, only just now returning to collect on certain investment prospects she left running that she was certain didn't need her micromanaging and would not be affected by her long-term absence. She has been growing ever more aware of the remaining time she can still spend here at this particular location before her abnormal youthfulness becomes increasingly apparent to her neighbors, eventually inciting the same inevitable stares and questions. She planned to sell the flat in less than three months' time, relocating to the new house she just bought in Montreal thirteen months ago as her new semi-permanent residence. She intended to stay there throughout the duration of the 'Great War' yet to come.

Helen turned in 'early' that night, around ten o'clock. She had become accustomed to follow a more standard sleep schedule like most regular people. Since she didn't currently run a facility that needed a lot of attention, staying up very late at night like she had while at the Old City Sanctuary didn't make much sense anymore for her. Five hours later, Helen's restful night sleep came to an abrupt halt when she was jolted awake at three AM by a somewhat terrifying surprise crash in her room. A very large weight had suddenly fell from midair to land on the corner of her bed, slamming to the floor below at its foot. Helen immediately sprang up out of bed, gripping the handle of the loaded revolver she kept under her pillow in the palm of her right hand. Her heart was racing. It was very close to pitch dark in the room, with barely enough light filtering in from the street lamp outside to give a minuscule outline of surrounding objects. All she could make out was a dark humanoid figure writhing on the floor, accompanied by chaotic scratching noises and a stressed growling sound that filled the air like the creature was confused and in immense pain. The movement started to wane after a minute, and the figure eventually silenced and stilled, gaining composure long enough for Helen to finally get a proper look at it as it sat upright and transposed itself to rest onto the balls of its feet. A momentary single ray of light scattered across the face of the creature staring back at her with large black eyes rimmed with red irises. The brief glance was all Helen needed to know what and who this was.

Helen gasped the instant the recognition hit and dropped her guard at the impossibility of it all. Before she could form a single syllable, the creature sprang forward, slamming her into the wall just four feet behind her. Helen couldn't move. She had been pinned like a star fish to the flat surface, both feet and arms completely immovable as the smaller body pressed itself onto her, pushing her flatter against the wall. Resistance was futile. Helen's wrists felt like they were being held in a metal vise bolted in place and she felt the breaths of warm humid air puff against the skin of her exposed neck just above her right collar bone. Every self-preservation instinct in Helen screamed, as her nerves tingled in anticipation of the impending bite from the razor sharp teeth hovering just millimeters above her lifeline. All Helen could do now was nothing other than say her daughter's name.

"Ashley…"

In early 2009 as Ashley felt control over her mind slip away from her again, the very last thought she ever had was that of her mother and her need to protect her from herself. She knew for certain that the next time the Cabal reclaimed her that that was going to be it; that her body was going to kill her mom right then and there without a single ounce of hesitation or mercy. As difficult as the next decision was to make, Ashley felt it in her gut that it was the only option left for her to be able to choose. Ashley steeled herself and teleported out into the ether, sacrificing herself along with the other Super Abnormal she held in tow. She didn't have an actual destination in mind. All she had focused on was the immense feeling of heartbreaking regret and betrayal she had at being forced to harm her mother against her will and at also being made to destroy almost all of her life's work.

On the other end of the teleport, when Ashley miraculously beat the odds and rematerialized, she felt like she got hit by a cement truck travelling down a highway. Where ever she was she couldn't see and whatever she landed on was hard and flat, her side clipping something during her surprise fall as she felt the world suddenly disappear out from underneath her and then just as fast come rushing up to greet her. The impact hurt. Every cell in her body cried out in shock, her skin felt like it was on fire, and her bones ached as if all 206 had fractured simultaneously. Her head throbbed as her brain traveled into three separate directions all at once. The Cabal 'noise' that overwhelmingly clouded her mind for the last month and a half had subsided into nothingness, her human mind frazzled into a stupor at the new environment she now found herself in and was scared of what just happened to her, and her vampire side just exploded like a bomb had gone off. With the sudden instant calmness and fear of the unknown thrust upon her, her vampire instincts kicked into overdrive for self-preservation, like the gate to a cage had been opened, allowing it to finally run free of any restraints or inhibitions. Without a clear mental compass, the vampire in her took over, trying to regain some semblance of control and a proper sense of surroundings and balance. That's when she noticed she wasn't alone where ever she was. Exactly that of a scared animal confined in an unknown space, she wasn't comfortable with the eminent presence of another being suddenly so close to her. Her default instinct was that this person was a threat to her survival: "danger" it told her, telling her to crouch into a more defensive stance. Eyeing the being opposite her, she saw a flash of emotion cross over its face (was it fear?) and relax into to a less defendable posture. That simple slight movement triggered her fight or flight response, launching her forward without any more thought. She restrained her opponent against the flat surface of the wall and leaned in, her desire to protect herself and kill the danger swirling around in her head. As her human side hesitated against a blind kill and her vampire side savored the rush of the attack before advancing to execute the next move, her senses picked up on something. As she breathed in the scent from the person's hair and skin, it gave her a strange sensation of warmth and security, a familiarity that filled her to her core with maternal safety; trading her feelings of fear with that of love and protection. And that's when she heard it, that all too unique lilt of the voice of her mother saying her name.

Helen felt her daughter's body start to relax against her, slowly releasing the tight grip on her wrists, allowing their arms to fall down towards their sides. The pressure of her back against to the wall also began to lessen as Ashley stopped fighting her and instead moved more into the comfort of her body, wrapping her arms around her chest and inhaling her scent deeply with her face pressed against the crook of her neck. Helen unquestioningly reciprocated the unexpected hold, returning the long-sought-after hug from the one person that Helen thought she would never get to hold ever again.

Ashley's vampire side relented into contentment, allowing her human self to breakthrough. That was when everything hit her, all of her memories and emotions flooding her like a massive tidal surge from a hurricane. Uncharacteristic to her usual nature to cover up her emotions with a mask of bravado, she unleashed all of it in front of her mother as she broke down into body racking sobs, pleadingly crying out, "Mom, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Mummy, I'm so sorry…!" into her shoulder over and over again, tears dropping everywhere as she clenched even more of the fabric of the back of her mother's nightgown in her closed fists.

Helen increased her grip to keep an even tighter hold of her distraught daughter, replying softly and reassuringly with, "It's all right, Darling, it's all right. It wasn't your fault. Everything's going to be all right. You're safe now. You're with me." as she applied a nuzzle and a kiss to the top of her daughter's head as her own tears started to flow down her cheeks as she too began to cry. Not very long later, they both inevitably sank to the floor as Ashley's weight leaning on her grew heavier and her convulsions abided into a calmed stillness. From all the recent mental trauma in the last few moments, Ashley's mind had slipped into a serene unconsciousness blanketed by sleep to finish sorting out all that had happened to her in such a short time span. When Helen noted the limpness of Ashley's body and her lack of response to the calling of her name, Helen carefully laid her daughter out on the floor, moving quickly to examine her to check and see if she was indeed all right and still breathing. That was when it finally became apparent to her that Ashley was barren of any clothing what so ever; the Cabal uniform nowhere to be found and her long blonde hair was spilling loosely all over the floorboards absent of the tightly keep style it was in the last time Helen had saw her. While the mother side of her was slightly surprised to suddenly find her adult daughter completely naked in front of her, the doctor side of her found it preferable as it made it easier to perform a physical exam. Plus, it also meant that Helen didn't have to worry about having to destroy the future garment. By now Helen's eyes had adjusted to the dark and she gave her daughter a quick once over, checking her vitals and anatomical functions. Overall, Helen concluded that Ashley was perfectly fine physically, just asleep and that her skin was a bit warm to the touch. Helen went to her dresser and grabbed a light nightgown to slip over her daughter, before carefully heaving her up and over to rest on the top of the bed. While Helen loved the girl with all her heart, she was pretty much all muscle at this point and Helen cursed lightly under her breath at having to pick up her one hundred and twenty-four pounds of solid dead weight. Once Ashley was settled comfortably, Helen sat back and stared at her, still not fully believing what she was seeing. Her broken heart finally felt whole again at having her daughter back in her life as she rightfully should be. The universe has unfathomably seemed to have given Helen an impossible new life full of second chances and opportunities, not only letting her repeat time, but also giving her a new beginning with her daughter whom she had thought she had lost forever. Helen reached forward and tucked Ashley in, finishing with a light kiss to her forehead before laying down next to her. She stayed awake for a little while longer before the excitement and adrenaline finally filtered out of her system just enough for her to join her daughter in a peaceful sleep.

Helen woke about three and a half hours later just before seven AM. She reached over to the still sleeping form next to her and lightly cupped the side of her daughter's face; lovingly stroking her thumb over her cheek, caressing the soft skin as she brushed a small rogue strand of light blonde hair back behind her ear. After the small moment of motherly indulgence, Helen made her way out of bed and got dressed for the day. With one last look, she headed to the kitchen to start a pot of tea before setting out to make breakfast. When she checked in on Ashley at eight AM, she found that her daughter had finally awakened and was sitting upright in the bed.

When Ashley awoke to the scent of familiar foods, such as the Earl Grey tea her mother preferred to drink occasionally, she had found that her mind seemingly had been reset during the night, feeling very much like a rebooted computer. She had no idea where she was or how she got in the bed the way she was. She also didn't notice that her eyes had changed and that her claws were out as well. Her mind became distracted with her new surroundings, slightly oblivious to her mother showing up in the doorway not far away.

Helen noticed Ashley's appearance and cautiously observed her daughter's inquisitive behavior as she moved to get out of bed, to stand and slowly stalk around the room taking everything in. It wasn't until the third time Helen softly called her name that she got Ashley's attention.

Ashley's head lightly snapped away from the object of interest on the night stand as she turned to face the voice talking to her. "Mom?" came the bewildered address.

Helen couldn't help but give a warm smile at hearing the title reserved especially for her by her only child, replying softly with, "Hello sweetheart, how are you feeling?"

After spending a lifetime of being prompted by that phrase from her mother, she began to answer "I feel….." but her standard conditioning to say "fine" got distractedly cut off and swarmed by a mountain of questions. "Where am I? What is this place? What are you wearing? Why are you blonde?" A perplexing look swept over Ashley's face, clearly emphasizing just how much she didn't know.

Helen walked a few steps forward and took her daughter's hands in her own. The contact reverted Ashley's physical appearance to that of her natural self, revealing the bright blue eyes that she inherited from her father. Helen gave a small sigh. "It's been a long time. A lot has happened since you've been gone. I'll tell you all about it over breakfast. Come with me, you must be hungry after last night." Confused at what her mother just said, Ashley simply nodded as a response. With that, Helen turned and led her to the kitchen table where she had set out a small spread of food for the both of them to enjoy.

As they ate, Helen began to answer all of Ashley's questions as truthfully as she could, figuratively laying all the information she had out on the table. The one thing she always disliked about being a parent was hiding the more negative things from her daughter to protect her. At the time, she thought it was ultimately the right decision to make. Unfortunately, it didn't always work out so well, with certain secrets eventually being revealed in a way that caused a small rift to form between them. Helen decided to continue to uphold the promise she made to her daughter in Rome, as she still had a lot to make up for. Due to the predicament that both of them are in now, it wouldn't make sense to continue to omit details. With both of them being stuck in the past, time travel has made it obligatory to not lie to each other as they both are now 100% dependent on each other to get back to their original timeline.

As Ashley looked around and took in the entire situation before her, she felt that it was very foreign and weird. Like she was in a strange dream in some past era. "What did you mean by 'It's been a long time'? I just saw you in the Sanctuary."

Helen looked down then looked back up and didn't bother to sugar coat this bombshell, "For you it was instant since you last saw me, which is part of the reason as to why you're confused by the way I look right now. For me though, it's been sixteen years since that moment down in the lower level."

Ashley's jaw dropped. "What?" she said, unbelieving.

Helen continued. "As I said, a lot has happened. The Cabal attacks on the Sanctuary Network happened in late February of 2009, just over six weeks after you were taken in early January of that year. That night you teleported out of my life and I never saw you again, until today." Helen's eyes started to glisten at the painful admittance, but she powered through. "I did everything I could think of to try to find you, as I was sure you had to be somewhere alive. I don't fully understand how I knew, but on the outside there was absolutely no scientific testing to prove what I felt. I know now the answer as to why that was." Helen made a brief swallow to help clear her throat. "More than a week had passed since that night and at the request of others, we held a small memorial service for you. Eventually time forced me to carry on and to continue with work and repairs. Life at the Sanctuary moved on without you." Helen gave a sad smile and reached over to give a gentle squeeze to her daughter's hand. "I didn't want to." A single tear finally escaped over the watery brims of her eyes, striking her cheek along its way down as it fell to the floor.

Seeing her mother become so raw in front of her, something her mom had never done before, made Ashley's heart ache at what she had put her mother through and caused her to almost cry herself.

Helen held the somber look between the two of them as she sat back in her chair, wiping away the tear stain and then casually motioned around to the rest of the room and to her clothing and hair. "To solve your confusion about how any of that leads to all of this and where you are now, it's quite an unbelievable story, but very true. In early 2011, around two years after your funeral, an old colleague of mine from Oxford named Adam Worth activated a time machine he made out of several time nodes and an anti-matter Kellorem device he had stolen from a Hollow Earth city called Praxis. Adam created the machine to go back in time to London in the year 1898 to save his daughter Imogene, bringing with him a cure for her untreatable rare form of Leukemia. I followed him through the portal into the past to 1898 in order to stop him from changing history. I was only able to do so with the aid of your father who stayed behind in 2011."

At that major revelation, Ashley's eyes widened as she sat dumbstruck.

"Several things happened and I failed to stop Adam from giving Imogene the Praxian medicine. Eventually I found out where he was hiding and we got into a shootout while running through the old cobblestone streets of London. Imogene unfortunately got caught in the middle of the crossfire; Adam hit one of the brick eaves looming above her on a building she was standing next to, causing it to collapse down on top of her. The impact killed her, seemingly restoring the timeline, at least so far from what I can tell." Helen paused and took a breath. "During that time, your Uncle James found out that I was a time traveler and has been very secretly helping me hide ever since. As of right now, I've been stuck in the past for the last fourteen years and we're sitting in the flat he helped my buy in South London. It is currently late February 1912, sixteen years to the day that I last saw you." Helen sniffed and reached up to the side of her face to toy with a loose strand of hair that was dangling by her ear. "As for my hair currently being my natural blonde color, my younger counterpart living through this era is also blonde and I sometimes have to impersonate her. Also, hair dyes during this time are still very rudimentary and not the best." Helen gave a slight grimace at that.

Ashley knew her mother never outright made things up, but this was wilder than any of the stories she's ever been told. She continued to just stare at her mom, desperately searching for a tell that this was all just a cruel joke. Ashley couldn't find one.

Helen knew that what she just told her daughter was a lot to take in, judging simply by the fervent look that was now displayed on her face, so she gave her daughter undeniable proof. "If you don't believe me, you can take a look for yourself out of any one of the windows. If that's not enough, we can take a tour of the city if you'd like. You'd have to wear proper attire first, of course. We'll maybe even travel up to the port in Belfast so you can see the Titanic in the final stages of being furnished in its fitting out." Helen got up from her chair to retrieve the newspaper that was out in the parlor, returning back to the kitchen to hand it to Ashley so she could read it for herself. Front page center was an article discussing the ships' progress along with it displaying a large black and white photograph of the vessel. If the timeline held true, the soon-to-be infamous ship would sink in just less than two months' time in an unforgettable dramatic fashion. Reminiscing about the accident still gave her chills.

"This can't be real." Ashley sputtered, furiously rereading the document and all its pages three times over, her brows furrowing. Her unshed tears from earlier were still there, but the reason behind them had now changed. Ashley wasn't sure if she was going to cry, scream out of frustration, or do both. Her reality has seemingly fallen out from underneath her again and it really didn't bode well with her to have had her world completely turned upside down for a second time within a month and a half.

"Unfortunately, it couldn't be any less real." Helen relented. She too knew how devastating the initial shock of being stuck in the past was for her, and she even knew ahead of time of what she was getting herself into. She couldn't imagine how alienated Ashley must feel right now, being not only stuck back in a time so far away from her own, but also in a time that she has never even lived through before and has no first-hand experience of; with several eras in-between that are vastly different from when she left.

Suddenly an important thought popped into Helen's head. "And before you get any funny ideas, no, we can't interfere with the sinking of the ship." Ashley gaped up at her in surprise, but Helen just shot back a knowing look. "Just as a reminder, my other self is set to board the Titanic at the port of Southampton not too long from now. Interfering with my other self in anyway can potentially cause both of our futures to drastically change. I'd prefer it to still be a future in which you are born."

That last statement sent a jolt down Ashley's spine. "Wait, so I won't exist?!" she squeaked.

Helen shook her at the dramatics. "No, you already exist in this timeline. You are currently a frozen embryo sitting in cryogenic storage in the basement of the London Sanctuary. What I meant was that if we interfere, it may put my other self on a different path, possibly changing when or if I have you at all, or cause one or both of us to die for various reasons somewhere along the timeline before your birth."

Ashley put her head in her hands. "Oh, that doesn't sound good." she moaned. Hearing about that possible reality suddenly made her feel very uneasy, like she was suddenly walking a tightrope.

"It's not all that bad though. On the bright side, unlike me, you don't have to worry about running into your other self, at least not yet for a while." Helen supplemented. "You have seventy-two years left to create another life without that worry hanging over your shoulder."

"Seventy-two years!?" Ashley huffed. "That's a lifetime! I'll be old by then!" she puffed.

"Actually, you won't be. You'll stay twenty-four for the rest of your life. Just like I'm stuck at thirty-five." And with that, her mother knocked all of the wind out of her.

"How can you be sure?" she questioned, uncertain.

"I ran several tests on you during my pregnancy with you and after your birth. All the tests confirmed that you inherited my genes for longevity as well as your fathers' for teleportation; they were just dormant in you like our genes were in us before the Source Blood experiment. As evidence with the Cabal's Super Abnormal Project, you can obviously tell that they activated your teleportation ability. After running tests on the other dead Super Abnormals laying around the Sanctuary, I found traces of your DNA in them carrying the exact same longevity genes in them having had been activated in comparison to the same dormant genes in the blood sample you provided for me to use to try to create an antidote to the Lazarus Virus."

Out of all that news, what Ashley got stuck on wasn't that she was going to possibly live forever, it was the teleportation she got from her dad. She looked at her mother with sudden wide panicked eyes. "My father! After he could teleport he went crazy and turned into a serial killer! Is that what's going to happen to me?! Am I going to turn bad like him too?!" She was very upset about the prospect of losing control of her mind again and becoming another monster that kills people.

Helen instantly quelled that fear. "What happened to him I am certain will not happen to you, as long as you take precaution. Almost a year after you disappeared, we learned through an unfortunate incident that his insanity was caused by a murderous energy elemental inhabiting his body. We know this because after events transpired that lead to his heart stopping, I had to resuscitate him with a defibrillator. When I did so, the creature jumped from him into the Sanctuary, almost killing all of us in the process of it taking control over the building. Your father decided to retake the creature back into his body to save everyone. His mental instability is not genetically transferable and is also not a result of the blood treatments I created for him to stave off his illness. We surmised that not long after he had gained the ability to teleport, turning his being into pure energy that travels through dimensional space time, he must have picked up the elemental somewhere along the way. So feasibly, until there's a way to make sure that you don't somehow also get a hitchhiker like him, I would recommend not teleporting anytime soon or preferably not at all if you can help it."

Not being able to teleport kind of made Ashley a little happy and sad at the same time. Also the fact that she could teleport made it certainly undeniable as to whom her parentage was. That was something she had still been irrationally holding the slightest denial about even though her mother confirmed it was true and that she could see a resemblance between herself and her father when looking at her reflection in the mirror. At least now she knows she won't turn into a psycho killer hunting people, save for her vampire half. As much as Ashley didn't like being genetically experimented on against her will, she did have to admit that being a vampire was actually pretty cool. It wasn't like how she had initially imagined. With the drugs the Cabal had been injecting her with currently burned out of her system, she felt fine, just with heightened senses and enhanced reflexes.

With vampirism on her mind, she addressed the situation to her mother. "So, what are we going to do about this?" she said, transforming her left hand to display her jet black talons to her mom, wiggling her fingers back and forth before letting them return back to normal.

Helen let out a sigh. "That, unfortunately, I don't think we can do anything about, sadly." she said accompanied by a small frown. "Genetic testing and modification the way we know it doesn't exist at this point in time and won't for the better part of the century. Even then when we do get back to our time, I'd rather not try to further modify your DNA. I don't have a clue as to what they did to you and I don't want to chance doing something to reverse it that may ultimately end up killing you by accident." Helen gave an emphatic smile. "As much as I loathe what the Cabal did to you and forced you to become, there is a slight comfort for me to know that you can heal quickly, making it almost impossible for you to die on me now. Are you okay with that?" she asked with kind eyes.

"Being stuck this way with you forever? I guess I don't have a choice but to be okay with it." Ashley said half-deflated, but also acceptingly.

"I'm sorry it's not exactly what you wanted to hear. How are you feeling?" Helen comforted.

Ashley shrugged. "I feel fine."

Helen probed a little further specifically. "Do you have any vampiric cravings?" she wondered.

"If you are asking if I need to drink blood, the answer is 'no'." she waved off with a barely-there roll of her eyes, followed shortly after by a tilt of her head and the furrowing of her brows. "I don't know why, but I remember being the only one out of the group of super soldiers who didn't have to. I mean I can, but it wasn't necessary for me to like it was for them."

Helen found that to be an interesting insight and gave her thoughts of a possibility as to why that may be the case. "It might have something to do with the fact that all of the other Super Abnormals were Montana test subjects." she offered hypothetically.

Ashley narrowed her eyes in confusion. "What do you mean? What 'Montana test'?" she questioned. As far as Ashley was aware, the Cabal had only done to the others what looked to be the same procedure that they had put her through. All six of them (herself included in that number) had come out with the exact same abilities in the end. Had she missed something?

Her mother then explained. "The others were orphaned children who had their DNA stripped of any imperfections in a genetic perfection experiment in an off-book MI6 operation in the mid 1980's called 'Project Montana'. I was a consultant brought in by the British government after the project had been active for a couple of years and reprehensibly recommended that it should be shut down. The files detailing that experiment were located within the two hundred petabyte's worth of classified information held on the storage drives the Cabal had you steal from an Interpol data farm in Montreal." Ashley at that moment briefly looked down, feeling a slight twinge of shame at getting called out about her past less-than-honorable actions that she was forced to commit.

Helen continued to elaborate. "Project Montana subjects were needed in the Cabal's plan as their stripped genomes meant that they were blank slates which allowed them to basically act as copies. It's easier to overwrite and to fill in the gaps with what they want. This scrubbing procedure however also made them completely unaffected by the Source Blood as it had nothing dormant to activate. That's where we learned how you came into to play." Ashley became a little more attentive just then. "They targeted you as you were the only offspring of two Source Blood altered parents. They knew that meant you were already pre-disposed to its effects and would most likely not reject further exposure to it, making you the perfect candidate. Unlike the others, you however didn't have any gaps in your DNA, which made it harder for the Cabal to tweak and add in all that they wanted. I'm theorizing that is why you don't crave blood like the others. That they weren't able to pass on as much vampire to you unlike when they transferred your DNA mixed with added Source Blood to the copies."

Once finished, Helen got distracted by the convenient notion that this might also explain the reason behind something else that made Ashley different from the others. "I noticed during the attacks on the Sanctuary Network that they were more feral than you were in behavior. You seemed to more methodically hang back and were toying around with me unlike the others who just blindly launched themselves at anything and everything."

Ashley massively inwardly cringed as her mother recounted her horrid behavior; her mind briefly flashing to those sick taunting moments as she hunted her own mother down in their home with a predatory glee; the Cabal capitalizing on her vampire instincts and excellent tracking ability, pushing mental control over them out of her reach. As uncomfortable as it was to revisit those memories, Ashley decided to continue forward with the discussion to add in something that Helen probably didn't know about it. "They were drones."

Her mother nodded in acknowledgement. "We did notice your telepathic communication between each other…" but before Helen could continue further, Ashley cut her off with a shake of the head.

"Not exactly. While it was telepathic, it wasn't real communication. We weren't having conversations with each other like the two of us are now. The others were just hollow shells sending and receiving signals, like robots. There was literally nothing there. No personality, no thought, no emotion, just orders from the Cabal. While I was trapped in my head wrestling back and forth for control of my body, fighting against those signals, I tried talking with them. They didn't exist as people anymore, just programmed vampires following a script." Ashley frowned.

Helen gave a sympathetic nod. "I saw you fighting. It was how I knew you were still in there." she said softly, yet determinedly. As she continued, she briefly cast her eyes aside to look down and away as she remembered those trying moments, before looking back up at her daughter. "Will thought that I was crazy, that I was only seeing what I had wanted to see; believing that I was blinded to your condition because I am your mother. He also thought along those same lines while I was searching for you afterward; that I was chasing your ghost. It doesn't matter though, as through it all even to this day, I still carried hope with me no matter how small the odds were. Turns out, I simply just had to wait for the 'right time' to finally come along to be able to find you." A relived smile had spread across Helen's face, touching her bright sparkling eyes as she leaned forward to briefly reach out to lightly squeeze one of Ashley's hands resting on the table; brushing her thumb over her knuckles a few times before she released her daughter's hand back to her.

Learning that her mother never gave up on her brought a sense of reassurance and warm comfort to Ashley's heart that helped to dull the pain of betrayal that was currently taking up a significant amount of residence there ever since her forced abduction. At hearing her mother recount Will's cynicism, it caused Ashley to involuntarily chuckle a little. "Will thinks everyone's crazy, not just you. He's also the last person you probably want to take any advice from anyway. Remember that time with the nubbins? It got loose because he wanted me to put it back in its cage because he wasn't comfortable with me holding it. When I did, I got distracted by the pheromones as the nubbin had peed all over him. It didn't like him at all. That's how Will ended up wearing my shirt as a replacement."

Helen enjoyed the small revelation. "I somewhat wondered how that had happened. You two were pretty vague on the details."

"Not much to tell, really. We were both just a little embarrassed that the nubbin almost caused us to kiss before it broke out of its cage. It was weird, because I normally don't have any interest in him like that at all. Strange to think that he doesn't even exist yet, not for another two generations or so. Same goes for Henry." Ashley softly pined about her adoptive brother and the fact that she won't be able to see him again for the next ten decades.

Helen felt this moment was the perfect opportunity to also mention another important detail about traveling through time. "Ashley, aside from possibly interfering with my past self that can potentially derail the timeline of your gestation and subsequent birth, you also can't interfere at all with the relationships of other people either as it may jeopardize their births also well, changing entire family trees. Unfortunately, even though it may not seem difficult now, it means that you, as well as I, can't have any romantic or sexual relations with anyone for the better part of the next century."

Ashley's face fell.

"We also can't save people from dying, by trying to interfere with wars and other terrible tragedies. We have to be very careful about what we do. Anything we do could set history down a different path. Even small things like taking advantage to cash in on the stock market. Considering temporal theories, we may or may not be taking the spot of another person who should have originally been involved with something, such as getting tickets to a concert or owning a certain property…. Somehow we may inadvertently affect how people interact with each other and the decisions that they ultimately end up making for one reason or another. You may accidentally bump into one of your friend's grandfathers making him miss the moment he originally meets their grandmother. We may end up causing an unintentional trickle effect leading to important influencers in culture and history, such as eliminating Elvis from the timeline, etc. We just don't know the scale or scope of our impact at this moment. What I do know and your Uncle James agrees, is that the more time that passes, the less of the ripple effect. So while we may be somewhat very restricted now a hundred years out, it will eventually get to the point where we can have more and more liberties."

"Time travel doesn't seem very fun anymore." Ashley pouted and slumped in her chair, picking up a spoon to swirl the remainder of her tea sitting on the table which had cooled to room temperature by now.

Helen returned the sentiment. "It's certainly not. To be honest, it feels like a never ending chore, always having to triple check that I don't accidentally tamper with or wander into something that I shouldn't have. Just keeping track of my other self is hassle, and on top of that I have to also try to avoid running into the other members of The Five, distant family members, old friends, and colleagues. It's immensely difficult and one of the reasons why I've haven't been in the entirety of England for the last decade until now. I only returned a week ago to close out a matured account. London is one of the largest cities in the world during this time and has over sixty thousand streets and passageways with millions of people inhabiting it, and yet within hours of arriving in 1898 I ran into your father who teleported into the same random back alleyway I was in while following Worth through the rain. The odds of that happening should have been astronomical. Luckily, he was somewhat inebriated during that altercation and I was able to deter him away from me without much questioning."

They had been sitting for a long while now and Ashley shifted in her seat. She readjusted the nightgown she had somehow gotten into and decided to ask her mom about it. "So, what happened to my clothes?" she asked, looking down and picking at the thin cotton fabric for emphasized effect.

Helen gave cheeky grin. "Oh, you weren't wearing any when you arrived. I gave you one of my lighter weight nightgowns to wear as you were quiet warm last night." Ashley was stunned for a quick second and then blushed as the realization hit her. "Not to worry, I can take your measurements in a little bit and pick up a few garments just to get you out of the house for the day. We can then both go out and buy you a full wardrobe and hire a seamstress to tailor your outfits. You may be a little dismayed to know that pants are not very common for women to be wearing these days, at least outside of America. You may want to stick to mostly skirts and dresses for a few years as we are trying to blend in. Sadly, long away are the days of head-to-toe black leather." She chuckled and Ashley let out a laugh.

As they finished the last of their breakfast and their heavy conversation found a natural pause, Helen stood from the table and led Ashley out into the parlor where the light was best. She wrote down all of the measurements she needed and instructed Ashley to stay in the flat until she returned.

When Helen returned about two hours later, Ashley was shocked at the size of the pile of multiple different fabrics items that were brought back. "Mom! I thought you said were only going to get me a few things for the day!" she gawked at it all.

Helen looked up and let out a small huff as she began unpacking the small haul of clothing. "I did. As much as I love some of the styles of clothing of this era, it's certainly a pain in the arse with how many layers a woman has to wear. Each proper outfit has anywhere between five to seven layers. What I brought back is enough for one day and one night, as well as some other essentials. It's one of the reasons many affluent households had hired help present just in order to get dressed. Men didn't have it too much easier."

Ashley had no clue as to where to start with the bundle of fluff in front of her, but Helen sorted it all out on the bed. She explained each piece and its role and then, leading her step by step, Helen taught her along the way of how it was applied. Ashley wasn't a huge fan of the corset, but decided to tolerate it. Eventually, the clothing portion of being a middle-upper class lady in this era was finished and they soon moved on to pinning up her hair and applying a light layer of makeup.

"There, all done." Helen let out a proud sigh of accomplishment. Her daughter looked quite beautiful in the dark sea green colored dress.

Ashley stood and turned to face the full length mirror as Helen moved to stand behind her. "Wow…." Her formal appearance left her almost speechless. She had never looked so much like a proper woman before. "This looks amazing." she appraised. "Sucks that it takes forever to do though." she said as she rotated to inspect her sides and back.

"With time and practice you'll get faster at it. You may actually like having fun with it, especially in the clothing eras to come." Helen smiled and stepped forward to lean into her daughter's back to embrace her and give her a peck on the cheek, resting her chin lightly on her shoulder. As they both continued to stare back at themselves through their reflection, Helen asked "Do you feel up to going out?" Her voice clearly laced with more than just a hint of mirth behind her words.

"Of course! Where are we going?" Ashley beamed excitedly, spinning around to look directly at her mother's face and into her eyes.

"I was thinking we could take a ride just across the river to Westminster and then make our way over to Hyde Park for a late afternoon picnic. It should be enough traveling for today, but before we leave, you need to know and be aware of all of the mannerisms and socially accepted behaviors of the day. It shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes of quick practice. Most of it I've been trying to instill in you since you were little, so at least some if it will be familiar to you."

After the quick mini etiquette lesson, they made their way outside the flat. Ashley was more than surprised at what she saw not even a few blocks away as they rode in the cab. As they crossed the Thames it finally fully sank in that she was literally experiencing a completely different world and that it was very much real. This certainly wasn't a dream and it couldn't be faked. Helen smiled as she watched her daughter take in all the sights, sounds, and smells of the city. She thought about how coincidentally ironic it was that Ashley is almost the same age now in 1912, albeit just older by two years, if she had originally been born when she should have been in early summer of 1889, had Helen not removed her embryo in mid-November of 1888. Helen indulged herself in that fact as it seems Ashley too got a second chance at living a life she initially missed out on.

Ashley caught her looking at her, "What is it? What are you so happy about?"

Helen couldn't help but smile brighter at that, "Oh nothing, just thinking about how this would have been your life had things worked out differently than they had. You would have celebrated your twenty-third birthday in the next several months of this year."

"Really? Ashley asked, fully intrigued.

Helen nodded "Instead, you'll now be turning twenty-five at the end of June. I had your re-implantation scheduled and performed on the same day and at the same time as your removal almost a century prior. Whether or not your day of birth would have been the exact same in 1889 as it was in 1984 I am unsure of, but it's very possible to have been." she shrugged.

Thinking about ages got Ashley curious. "What will you be?" she inquired innocently.

"I'll be 175 this August" Helen said straight up. "I got sent back to 1898 over half a year before my 161st birthday."

"Damn." the younger woman let out accidentally as her eyes widened at the news.

Her mother gave her one of her 'looks' accompanied by the tilt of her head. "Watch your language. Remember what we talked about earlier just before we left." she admonished.

"Sorry, Mom. I'll try to catch myself next time." Ashley apologized.

"It's all right, I know it'll take some time getting used to. Even I had trouble curbing my tongue when I arrived back here. It's one of the things that gave me away to your Uncle James as not being from this time period anymore." Helen gave a smirk.

The rest of the short ride was spent in silence. Once they arrived at their destination a few minutes later, the pair spent a good deal of time touring around the area before they made their way up and over to the park not too many blocks away. The weather was thankfully exceptionally good that afternoon and it made it a perfect setting to enjoy the local festivities going on. Ashley especially enjoyed the outing as even though she had been to these exact same places before in the late twentieth century, the entire experience was completely different now as compared to the modern world overrun with cars. The culture was also very different as it was just after the end of the Edwardian Period.

Helen and Ashley eventually settled down on a blanket in a nice grassy section of the field. They were just far enough away that they were out of ear shot of other people who were casually strolling by on the nearest walking path. There, Helen decided to reveal to Ashley her plans for the future of the Sanctuary Network.

"Ashley, there's more for me to tell you about my time here in the past. I know that I told you that we can't interfere with the past as it'll alter the future, but I've been working on a way to change the future of the Sanctuary in secret by deciding to make a new one hidden underground."

Ashley looked up at her mother from people watching. "Are you serious? Why underground?"

"Well for starters, I can't possibly build anything in the past out in the open as people would be able to see it. Also, after you left, things at the Sanctuary started to go downhill and got more bureaucratically complicated. Within a year I was removed as the Global Head of the Network twice." Helen said thin-lipped.

Ashley was taken aback. "What? Why?" she asked concerned.

Helen sighed. "The first time was technically my doing. I thought it was a fabulous idea to stick an Ozone Beetle up my nose and fake murdering the Big Guy to call in the Triad. I had noticed a series of information leaks and had a suspicion that it was one of the Triad telepaths. During the investigation, per Charter rules I was temporarily replaced by Declan. I used information regarding Big Bertha to draw out the culprit. My suspicions were right and Will and the rest of the team were able to figure it all out in the end. In the meantime, I quite literally lost my mind and started having seizures, eventually being placed in a medically induced coma until the bug was surgically removed from my brainstem."

Ashley just stared at her with her jaw hanging. "Oh my God, Mom! You stuck a hallucinogenic Red Lister up your nose?!" She couldn't believe it.

Helen brushed off the quip. "The second time was almost a year after your disappearance. It relates back to the first incidence as it involved Big Bertha getting loose and forced to make new land by a billionaire eco-warrior who thought it was a good idea to try to recreate Pangaea. Wexford particularly didn't like the fact that I lied about killing her and basically committed mutiny in the process. He caused Bertha to set off a giant tidal wave that sank part of the fleet of Sanctuary ships and wiped out some of the Indian coastline in the process. We were eventually finally able to get Bertha back under control and avoided complete disaster with the help of other hyperspecies abnormals to stop the rest of the wave. Thankfully, the other Sanctuary Heads rescinded Wexford's position and reinstated me."

"Sounds intense." Ashley said before asking, "There are other hyperspecies besides Bertha?"

"Quite a few actually. Because of that incident, we ultimately found out about Hollow Earth. I think you were in a slight state of shock earlier when I mentioned the underground city. From dealing with Bertha and receiving cryptic messages from my father, we learned that for over the last eight thousand years the Earth has had these giant hollowed out caverns in its crust and in those caverns have resided entire scientifically and technologically advanced civilizations full of people and abnormals. The main authoritative city-state is called Praxis. In that city is an avatar chamber in which council members can communicate and basically control hyperspecies. My father reached out to Will using the chamber to send a message to me, as I became needed to help save a magma dwelling hyperspecies that went by the name Kanaan. Apparently my father had been a resident living there as a highly respected citizen for at least sixty-five Praxian years. It explained where he's been since he disappeared on his expedition to Mecca and how he was able to have lived for as long as he has."

Ashley got excited to hear about the incredible city and wanted to hear more. "That sounds so cool! What else was it like there?"

Helen flat out grimaced and shook her head. "Outside of the technology, it's not a place where you would ever want to take a vacation. Just stepping foot in their city without permission led to the four of us being executed for trespassing; myself, Henry, Will, and Kate, a new member that joined the team. You may remember her as being the one who shot you with the RPG launcher just before you teleported."

"Yeah, when we get back, remind me to thank her for that." Ashley supplied. "So, all of you were dead? That's harsh." she reasoned as her brain clicked away; "But, if you were dead, then how are you alive now?" she questioned.

Helen nodded. "We were, yes. Their judiciary system we were told was reserved for citizens only. They electrocuted us immediately without letting us give any explanation as to why we were there. It was like they were a civilization back in the dark ages." Helen frowned. "'Death' in Praxis is a form of ion suspended animation; it's how their prison system works. I'm currently alive as they had to revive me in order to interrogate me about the whereabouts of Adam Worth. When issues with Kanaan arose during my interrogation with Praxis' leader Ranna Seneschal, I had them reanimate the rest of the team as well in order to help aid the situation. I don't recommend their smoothies." Helen wrinkled her nose at remembering how god-awful the protein shake she was made to drink tasted. As much as she hated coffee, she hated that concoction a hundred times more.

"This Adam guy sounds like he's involved in a lot in these events." Ashley surmised.

"He certainly is. To start at the beginning, way back during my years at Oxford he tried to join in The Five in 1886, but we rejected him due to the Source Blood experiment we were working on. As I mentioned earlier about his daughter, when she originally died from her disease in 1898, Adam mentally broke. After the turn of the century in 1908, ten years later, he tried to poison the city of London in a plot to kill millions of people by using the massive amounts of cyanide he had stolen from a facility. I, as well as the rest of The Five, were tasked by the Prime Minister of the British government by order of King Edward VII to be independent agents sent out to bounty hunt Adam to stop him. We found and disarmed his device in the nick of time before it could release the toxin into the water supply. It took some effort, but we eventually tracked him to a quarry in a remote location. After I shot him, he apparently fell to his death off a cliff edge and I never saw him again until he showed up over a hundred years later after the Bertha fiasco in looking for the Hollow Earth map that we had. It turns out that the river he fell into at the base of the cliff led to an entrance way into Hollow Earth, where like my father, the citizens took him in and he gained the ability of longevity as well."

"Why were they both allowed into the city without issue but not you?" Ashley wondered.

Helen held her finger up to pause the questioning from accidentally jumping too far ahead into her story. "I'm leading up to that." she prefaced, and then continued on with her recount. "So, while Adam was in Praxis in the early 20th century, he came across a Kellorem anti-matter device. He had the idea to start experimenting with the notion of time dilation in an effort to create a time portal to go back in time to save his daughter from dying. After a few failed experiments, one terrible incident in particular that had destroyed a whole section of the city, Praxis finally arrested him around the year 1935. He had been in their prison system until early 2010 when he had escaped Praxis and made his way to the surface with a bunch of stolen cerellium energy nodes; having to leave behind the Kellorem anti-matter device that he needed to power up his machine as it was locked inside a secure vault. During this time, he had learned somehow that I was in possession of a Hollow Earth map and then lured me out of the Sanctuary to try to get to it. During the rouse, he trapped the two of us in an old abandoned building by using time nodes to speed up time. To catch him, I ended up following him through one of the time riffs he used to teleport himself from one end of the facility to the other. Both of us ended up getting exposed to an extremely massive dose of radiation, causing our cell walls to deteriorate at an alarming rate and our organs to begin to fail. It caused so much damage to our bodies that the both of us would have died within a few weeks. Conventional treatments weren't working, barely slowing it at best. That forced me into letting him get access to the map to show us where the surface entrances to Hollow Earth were. The city, he told us, contained a cure for our radiation sickness. And thankfully, it did. I was handed a dose in exchange for my help with Kanaan. Because the Praxians don't like vampires as they were the reason behind why they hid underground in the first place, both your father and Nikola had to stay behind, keeping Adam as a prisoner in the Sanctuary. I was able to go because Nikola was able to create a cloaking device for me to wear. To answer your question as to why we were treated hostilely upon our arrival into the city, it was because they didn't trust any surface dwellers anymore after Adam's betrayal and escape. They thought that we were in collusion with him. It didn't help that my father also broke the rules by breaking into the avatar chamber to send us a message. Even more so, it really didn't help that for some reason, your father being upset that something had gone wrong with us, decided to teleport Adam back into the city with him as a guide. Adam then broke into Praxis' armory and stole a whole bunch of weapons and reclaimed the Kellorem device. Right after we successfully treated Kanaan, everyone was running around the city trying to catch him, including me. We ultimately caught up with Adam, and I shot him, again. Unfortunately it wasn't soon enough and he escaped in a transport pod. Your father ended up helping teleport Adam out of the city as Adam made a deal with him to take him back into to the past with him. Since our job was done and Adam had mysteriously disappeared, everyone presumed he was dead based on John's message written on the floor of the transport pod in Adam's blood with the Kellorem device sitting next to it, I and the rest of the team were escorted back to the surface."

Helen took a brief pause, seeing the cogs in Ashley's mind turn as she processed all of this new information, and then continued. "After about another half of year went by, another time dilation bubble showed up in Europe, completely engulfing the French town of Carentan. Will and I got trapped there for 263 days Dome-time until we were able to nullify the time field. In regular time it had only been a few hours. It wasn't until later when your father found me to help hunt Adam down again that I learned that the event in Carentan was caused by Adam setting off his device, in which the time bubble escaped through a fissure in the Earth's crust. Your father came to me because he was mad that Adam broke off his deal with him; learning the truth that Adam was going to the year 1898 to cure Imogene instead of early 1886 for John to stop the Source Blood experiment from happening in order to alter the course of our personal history together. Eventually, we found Adam hiding in a small alcove in a tunnel near Praxis but we were too late. He had finally perfected his machine and opened a successful time portal with a replica Kellorem device. We couldn't touch him as he was using the cerellium time nodes and surrounding Praxian geothermal energy sources to be out of phase with our reality, acting much like a hologram; you could see him, but he wasn't solid. Your father decided to use the creature in him to siphon enough energy away to bring Adam's work station fully back into our plane of physical reality. And that's when I went through to the past, following mere moments right after Adam crossed the event horizon. I have no idea as to what anarchy is going about on the surface as we learned that Praxis was completely destroyed from a previous attempt that Adam had made to power up the machine, possibly killing my father and resulting in rogue factions of Hollow Earth abnormals running loose on the surface and governments clambering all over the place quell it."

"Bloody Hell…" was all Ashley could say in response. What her mom just told her made what the Cabal did look like child's play. "So, what happened to Adam?"

"I killed him." she admitted point blank. "After Imogene died from the eave falling on her, I vaporized him with one of the Praxian energy weapons he had brought with him. He's just a pile of dust now."

"Good. He was starting to sound like a cockroach you couldn't squash." Ashley deadpanned.

Helen chuckled a bit at her daughter's response and then decided to get back on track. "Anyways, returning to my plan for the Sanctuary's future, I intend to consolidate the entire Network back into a single facility again. No more facilities spread all over the globe, with the possible exceptions of Old City, New York, and London outside of the new Underground facility I intend to build. I'm throwing out the Charter and getting rid of all the Head of House positions and protocols and such. I'm tired of the Sanctuary being what it's currently like, following the model of a company being run by a board of several other people. I want to bring it back to its roots of being a true private family run facility without any government involvement and all of their red tape and invasive sanctions. I want freedom and anonymity again. That is the reason behind every action I have taken thus far on my trip here though the past."

Ashley couldn't help but agree with that. Over the years, she saw firsthand how much her mother began to loathe being turned into a government side piece. "You said 'family run', what did you mean by that exactly?"

Helen spilled out the truth and looked straight at her daughter. "Ashley, I not only need you, but I want you to be my partner in this. Completely. I want you with me every step of the way, much like how you should have always been. With you, I'm not longer alone in this massive undertaking and it's going to take the both of us in order to get this done. I can see that now. You'll be in invaluable asset in the days and years to come."

Ashley eyed her mother with a bit of hesitation. "Are you sure? You let me run missions before, but this is a whole other level I'm not used to."

"Absolutely" Helen replied without an ounce of doubt or regret. "I've hidden things from you before, and it was a mistake. Neither of us can afford to keep things from each anymore if we want to get through this and make this work."

Ashley felt the sincerity and honestly of her mother's words sink in, and it truly meant a lot to her. "Thank you for that." Ashley appreciated. "What do you have planned to do next?"

"Currently, I had planned to stay here in London for the next three months and then sell the flat, moving into the house I just bought in Montreal for the next decade or so."

Ashley was a tiny bit sad that they wouldn't be staying longer. "Why sell the flat in three months and move to Canada?" she asked genuinely.

Helen got a bit cheeky with the simple answer. "I've had this flat for fourteen years now, and the new house is larger with more bedrooms. Plus it would be ideal to live in a location that is not directly involved in a World War." she finished with a cock of her head and a raised eye brow.

Ashley sharply inhaled as her face filled with sudden realization of the major historical aspects of the time period she was now living in; future history that she will now have live through. "OH…. Yeah, there is that." she breathed out. She then admitted a new fear that had internally creeped up on her with a detectable amount of worry filtering her voice. "I keep forgetting, that for me, these events aren't just words on a page, photographs, or old video clips anymore... that it's now part of my literal reality that can affect me; that none of this is a 'distant past' anymore, but the actual present."

As her mother, Helen could all too well directly relate to what Ashley was now faced with and lamented on that fact. "Looks my decision to continually delay carrying you to term to avoid all of this turmoil seems to have been all for naught, as you are still having to live through all of it anyway. This was one of the many things I didn't want for you to have to experience." she heavily sighed. "I do however find comfort in that at least neither of us will have to go through all of this repeat time alone. We have each other now, just like how it always should have been." Helen consoled.

"When you finally told me that you had kept me frozen for nearly a hundred years before having me, I had initially thought about the drawback that I had missed out on living through a lot of fascinating culture, but at the same time while looking back, I did prefer the benefit of being born past all of this, which was something I have always wanted to thank you for. No one but Fate could have predicted time-travel actually being possible and both of us getting sent back to re-live this time together like a partially twisted chance do-over." Ashley put forward and shrugged.

Helen in turn gave a hum of acknowledgment as she looked away. "The course of life does seem to have a wicked sense of humor at times." she said gazing off distantly across the field at nothing in particular as she thought back through her many memories. "At least in my history it does." she clarified plaintively as she looked down briefly to pick a single blade of grass. "Sometimes I feel like I'm being punished for defying the natural order of things by living for far longer than I should. Other times, like now, I see my longevity as a blessing as I get the chance to experience things I wouldn't have been able to with a normal lifespan." Helen then turned her head to look back at her daughter. The next statement she said had an inflection of sadness in her voice and a look of relief behind her eyes as she reached over to grab her daughter's hand in a firm grip, almost like she was afraid Ashley was going to suddenly slip away from her. "I get to have all this time with you."

The somber tone in which Ashley heard this revelation and noticing that her mom had continued to circle their conversation back around to the theme of "togetherness" between the two of them, mentioning it for the third time now, gave her all the context she that needed to understand her mother's current train of thoughts and it broke her heart. What she said next, she looked at Helen straight in her eyes, unwavering. "The loneliness... believing you were going have to relive all one hundred and thirteen years alone... on top of what you've already originally lived... I can't imagine how devastating that outlook of life has been for you." she said heavily empathetic and filled with sorrow.

At hearing her daughter's words, knowing that she finally knew her true feelings that she's covered up for several decades throughout the last half of her life, Helen's facade to shield her emotional vulnerability simply fell away as she closed her eyes and broke down and cried, nodding her confession. Ashley wordlessly moved closer to envelop her in a warm supportive embrace as Helen opened up her heart to her. "By the time I had you, I had been sooo lonely for such a very long time and had come to see my longevity as being a type of curse, forcing me to watch everyone that I love and care about die around me. Outside of tirelessly waiting for a better world for you and better socioeconomic factors for single mothers, that's the real reason for why I had you when I did. I just couldn't bare it any longer. When you where finally born, I had imaged this long full rich life with you... and then when you suddenly died in almost a blink of an eye, your life cut so short... I... I felt like I was destined to live a life all alone. When I arrived back through time in 1898, when I thought about what I would change if I could, my first thought was that hopefully at least only the next one hundred and eleven years of my life would have to be spent by myself. I won't lie and say that when your time of death eventually came around again in early 2009 that I wouldn't have interfered with the EM Shield to let you pass through it, to save you, because that's honestly the only thing that has been keeping me going for the last fourteen years. In the first two years of you being gone, at least twice I've considered ending my life." With that, Helen had finally revealed to Ashley the haunting desire that has loomed above her for the last unknown amount of time, the desire to just 'end' that lingers in the back of her mind like an ever present background noise. Without her, Helen had seriously thought about never returning to the life she had left behind in the future until James reminded her that she "can always go home, it just might a while". As people say, 'home is where your heart is', and her heart is forever linked to be with her daughter which gave her a want to come back, at least up to a certain point in time. If her plan to save Ashley had failed, well... it might have come down to something as simple as a coin toss on whether or not to keep going. Luckily, her life would never end up going down that road, as her daughter fortuitously is with her right here and now.

For Ashley, that powerful admittance was the last piece of the puzzle about her cemented place in her mother's life that she hadn't fully understood until now. She had always known that her mother loved her, but she didn't realize by just how much of an extent that she was in essence a linchpin, that she was the very reason for why her mother continues to live her very long life. When Ashley first learned that she wasn't actually conceived when she thought she naturally was, that instead her mother had intentionally removed her from her womb, putting her life on pause for almost ten decades by keeping her frozen in a cryochamber, she did initially form some dark doubts that during all that time that she may have been lain forgotten in some unseen catacomb somewhere as just another item collecting dust among a sea of mementos her mother had packed away. That her mother just saw her as some 'maybe kid' she might not ever have, considering who her biological father was; the very real possibility that Helen may have feared that she would spawn the next Jack the Ripper, a fear that could have led to her never being born. This however, was far from the actual reality that her mother just told her. That she was always wanted and that it pained her mother greatly to have to wait for so long to have her and to live a life without her in it. Ashley didn't know how to respond to any of the truths her mother had just revealed to her other than to continue to hug her mother deeply and to cry along with her.

By now, the day had mostly past; it was getting quite late as the afternoon had shifted into early evening. When Big Ben struck on the hour, alerting the two women to the passage of time, they decided it would be best to wrap up their trip and to head home. Helen hailed a cab for them and they made their way back across the river to her flat. She had made a small dinner for them, but they both barely touched it, eating at most half of the prepared food due to their emotional exhaustion. Rather than try to finish their meal, they opted instead to place it in the icebox and to go to bed early snuggled up beside one another, waiting for a new more joyous day to arise tomorrow (depending on if it rained).

After about a week of having more little adventures around city, Ashley suddenly and inevitably came to her mother one morning in the kitchen with an important question in which the topic revolved around the personal matters of women of this era. She had to ask how she was supposed to deal with getting her menstrual period. Helen held a deep sympathy for the girl and showed her what to do, and what she herself preferred. Going through menstruation monthly was an annoyance beyond anything else that truly sucked about being in the past. She too missed the modern day conveniences that made it immensely less of a hassle to deal with. It was one of the aspects of time travel that Helen really didn't like having to relive and was one of the main reasons why she was hoping the next few decades would go by more quickly. Only a thousand plus cycles to go before this trip through the past was over.


	5. Ch 5: 1912 - 1920's

**1912 – 1920's**

With an added person to hide through this re-run of history, not only did it make certain things a little more complicated, but in other aspects it also made a few things easier. One of the issues was identification and what name Ashley would be using. They both knew the fact that using multiple random names and identities would create a continuity issue down the road, making it harder to keep their stories straight such as if they ran into another person and had just so happened to be using another name at that given time. Helen knew from her first go around through time at how complicated it got using false names and passports, and that was even with the helpful assistance of the British government being involved; a luxury that was now absent. Biology also dictated that a person would always respond to their given name as it was ingrained in them since birth as being part of their core identity. For that reason, Ashley adopted what her mother had decided to do, to continue to use her same first name and just switch out her middle and last names. To keep the lie simple, they both agreed upon sticking close to the truth; using actual family names to fill in the gaps.

However, with two people this became a slight problem. For them to both try to remain as hidden as possible meant that they couldn't be registered with the same last names or even documented as being related to one another. Since Helen had already started to use names on Ashley's maternal side of the family, it was decided that it would be best if Ashley took names from her own paternal lineage. They each started fairly close, Helen using her mother's maiden name 'Bancroft' and Ashley decided to go even closer, using her father's first name, 'Montague' for her new last name. With the naming, Helen also implemented the rule of 'use it and lose it'. The intention is for it to help conceal the fact that they are essentially immortal. It would be very suspicious if a name never died out and was being reused over and over again for everything. To avoid any unwanted attention, they agreed on time limits for each name that they had chosen to use and also made sure that each name wasn't to be over used to thwart creating a long paper trail following behind them throughout history. One of the positive things about having another person in the past was that there was now a second individual who could bring in income. Following the 'use it or lose it' model meant that any account, business, stock, bond, property etc. that each of them opened separately had to be a one-time-only deal and fully closed or sold once matured. There were to be no 'inheritance' profiles that were transferred from an older alias to a newer one. This practice in Helen's mind would release the ventures to hopefully be claimed by its 'rightful' owners in time, if that were to be the case. Another stipulation included that if one of them for some reason wanted to reinvest in a particular portfolio that it had to be set up with a brand new clean account with a different identity several years to decades apart, as to not be remembered or connected to any previous affiliation or involvement.

While it would eventually become harder to continually re-create two brand new fictitious individual people who never actually existed once the advent of digital technology and consolidated data bases came about, it would be the most unnoticeable approach if someone were to do a historical search at some point in the future. Having two people with the same first and last names linked to each other repeatedly over the course of a century would put up a giant red flag. Helen didn't want to leave too many breadcrumbs for people to follow and she absolutely did not want any trace to come back to Ashley what-so-ever. Her daughter had already been taken from her once before and used as a weapon against her in one of the most unimaginable ways possible, and because of that she vowed with her entire being to never let that happen ever again.

Within the first month of living at their new home in Montreal, Helen had a conversation with Ashley one afternoon about what would happen once they hit the day that Ashley's time loop had completed. Helen made it very clear to Ashley that she was to never attempt to return to the Old City Sanctuary or any Sanctuary and to also not attempt to contact any of its personnel and affiliates; that unfortunately included Henry. She even went so far as to ban her from visiting any of the cities that the Sanctuary Network resided in. Helen was very strict about this protocol and declared that the matter was non-negotiable. Ashley was very distraught by this restriction until her mother explained to her the reasoning behind it. That not only would this hold true as to why Helen's past self nor any other person ever saw Ashley making a single appearance for almost two years after her assumed fatal teleportation through the EM shield, but it also reinforced Helen's want for her daughter to capitalize on her death; to take as much advantage of the opportunity as she possibly could for as long as she could. Being a ghost that no one would even think to look for provided the best anonymity any one could ever hope for. It also would help reduce their shared fear of a possible future copy-cat abduction by further limiting the chance that she was found out to still be alive. At the end of the conversation Helen admitted that she too wanted an 'out' just like Ashley had been granted. Once she had returned to her own time and it became apparent that the Sanctuary Network was prepped and ready to completely shift everything over the Underground facility, she intended to fake her own death to stop governments and other organizations from hounding her. Though currently, she wasn't quite so sure how she was going to go about doing that convincingly.

Not very surprising, Ashley became bored quite quickly and found herself one morning lamenting on the sofa to her mother. The initial novelty and excitement of time traveling and being in the 1910's had evidently faded beyond contentment. Helen knew that her daughter never liked to settle for too long, and just like herself, she preferred to stay busy. She also knew that even though the girl loved to travel and explore, that it was the connection to a place that her child enjoyed the most. While Helen had resigned herself to playing the long game, Ashley was still on the complete other end of the spectrum and started to get frustrated with how slow everything was moving in-between major steps. She came from a world of always being on the go, a lifestyle full of action and adventure accompanied by a large dose of danger and drama twisted into it; so was the way of her life at the Sanctuary bagging and tagging abnormals. She was the chainsaw to Helen's scalpel. To help alleviate Ashley's internal struggles, Helen encouraged her to take part in the world, involving herself in the cultural eras by experiencing various jobs of all sorts and investing her time learning new hobbies. Helen herself had already begun to do that, but her career choices she pursued all had a connected purpose to building the new Sanctuary. Ashley on the other hand, while still a full partner, knew that she didn't have much to bring to the table this far out other than filling the role of being the brawn and shadow puppet that her mother needed. Her mother would unquestioningly be the brain of the operation and logistics manager for a very long time to come, possibly forever, and she accepted that as that was the role she was born into and it so far fit perfectly with her. It's what made them work so well, as they could cover each other's bases and short-comings; Ashley being the 'Yin' to Helen's 'Yang'.

Helen understood that while both of them were stuck in the past, that it didn't necessarily mean that both of their paths had to follow the same exact directions to their shared destination. To make it easier for Ashley to understand, Helen made their lives analogous to a two-car road trip. She made the point of relating herself as to being the lead car that is stuck in very slow-moving traffic on an interstate with a direct route straight to the finish. Although all-purpose, it's not very enjoyable as it is lined with pine trees that she can't see through to help her avoid the distractions of her first life. As for Ashley, she would be the following car that saw the congestion ahead and decided to not stay on the interstate anymore, opting instead to detour and take an exit ramp to travel faster yet ultimately further by driving the scenic route that bypassed all of the traffic; winding through townships, neighborhoods, farm land, and national parks. Along the way she could make several pit stops and take her time to sight see, embracing her journey to create her own story and gain new experiences out of it. Helen emphasized heavily to Ashley that she had already taken the interstate once before, but in the form of being a piece of luggage in Helen's car while she was still a frozen embryo for all of those years; that she now has a second chance in the past to live a life that she had already missed out on once before.

While Helen would always be there to provide insight and guidelines, Ashley was technically free to do whatever she wanted as long as she stayed relatively within the boundaries. Her life in a way had become a coloring book. While the outlined pattern was there, she could pick what colors she wanted to use and the when, where, and how she wanted to use them to fill in the mosaic. It didn't matter if the occupation or activity was high class, low class, industrial, corporate, entry-level, advanced, paid well, was based on tips or commission, full-time, part-time, lasted more a year or only for a few months, so long as it was something that had initially interested her and held something that she wanted to learn about or just to experience either because she thought it would be fun or simply just wanted to add it to her acumen. The world was her oyster.

Taking the leeway granted from mother, Ashley set out on testing multiple career paths to see what she liked. Within the first ten years she had already tried seven different trades, refining a few skills along the way such as being a telegraph operator during the second half of the First World War; knowing Morse code certainly did have its advantages. She had also taken up formal classical music lessons involving learning music theory and diving into the mechanics of the piano as a start; her mother had tried to teach her when she was little, but it never caught on as she was more interested in just watching her mom play rather than playing herself. During that decade she had also moved out of her mother's place within the year and into her own apartment and subsequently moved another three times since, semi-following her career choices, moving to cities that would be hiring the occupation she was going after.

With her daughter off on her own individual pursuits, Helen during this particular decade had doubled down on her own agenda, getting a little too involved with history, a knowingly amount more than she should have. Being as there were a lot great minds still around at this time and that there were a lot of inventions and techniques on the cusp of being created, with how technologically ambitious she had intended for the new Sanctuary to be, it required her to try to enlist their help; what better way to gain information than from the actual sources and creators themselves! Helen knew that to even be able to get near such people and on top of that, to be heard, required her to build credit behind the name of Helen Bancroft, and one of the best ways that she knew was through her passion for medical science; something that she was extremely adept in. On one side, she had literal future knowledge of procedures at her disposal. On the other side, there was the issue that she was walking a very delicate line of not accidentally stealing an innovative practice from someone or pushing medicine to be more advanced than it was. She also didn't want to stick so far out that her past self would read about her in a journal. It was a gamble that she had to take.

By the year 1916, Helen had accomplished a lot of feats. Not only had she had enrolled in the University of London and graduated with a Doctor in Science degree in Medical Science, becoming a visiting professor there, but she had also gained a PhD in Global Health from Lahore University in Pakistan. She did so well there that she quickly rose through the ranks in the establishment, not only becoming the professor of Global Health at Lahore, but also the university's Executive Director of Health Science and their Director of Medical Fellowship. Helen also became an honorary professor at Queensland University in Australia as well.

**1920s**

At some point all of this achievement gained the attention of Viscount Haldane who invited her to be a guest at a private symposium that he hosted for Albert Einstein in London in 1921 for a listening on breakthrough medical research and discoveries. Helen was given a chance to speak about her upcoming advancements in medicine, and the placement of her research team. This allowed her to rub shoulders with some of the brightest minds that the world would ever know. Though, Helen had to be careful here as her other self would also being interacting with these same people in just a few years' time, if not already.

Other than that, the rest of this decade was spent similarly to the first, with Helen and Ashley each going their own separate ways. They would frequently keep in touch with each other via post; updating each other of on their activities and any residence changes they would make. They only met with each other in person about six times during that entire period due to how busy they had each become. Though overall, it didn't really bother each other too much, as Helen felt proud at seeing her daughter spread her wings and be independent of the Sanctuary, and Ashley relished in being her own decision maker; happily traveling to where ever the road may take her.

* * *

_Authors note_: There is a pretty major conflict in this chapter regarding Lahore University. I had thought about completely throwing that whole involvement out, but the writers of the show made it cannon and I want to stick to it as closely as I can. The issue is that Lahore University in real life doesn't even exist until the year 1999. So, I don't know if the writers knew that or not, thinking they could just throw in some off the wall university that most people never heard of thinking it wasn't a big deal if Magnus interfered with it, but at the same time it does seem oddly specific? I didn't really know how to treat that, as that whole section was based off of the text on the computer screen Abby is looking at as she searches SCIU's database for a Helen Bancroft. It says that Bancroft has a PhD in Global Health from Lahore, but yet Bancroft is also the professor and director of the university. It's kind of confusing, like did she earn it then replace her teachers, or create the entire medical program there and award herself her own degree? The first option sounds more reputable as there also wasn't any specific mention that she founded the university more than 83 years before it actually should. I'm leaning towards an over sight on part of the writers as on that same screen Abby is reading is a noticeable typo of the Dallas Sanctuary being listed as 'Dalass', lol. Also, a bit interesting thing to consider is that past Helen already knows Einstein and other major scientific pioneers. I'm not sure how'd she be able to show up as Bancroft and no one ever question the name change and or later recognize her using the name Magnus. But, I just have to roll with it.


	6. Ch 6: 1930's

**1930s**

Thankful for both of their knowledge of the Great Depression, Ashley and Helen were able to safe guard their assets ahead of time and were able to make it through this financial crisis relatively unscathed. In order to not stick out by flaunting their large wealth, they penny pinched like all the others to blend in. By the time 1936 had rolled around, things for Helen had begun to slow down again, eventually leading her to decide to move back in with her daughter, to live at the multi-storied Edwardian house Ashley owned out on the west coast of the United States in San Francisco. Ashley at that point in time was working for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper as well as being a well-hired calligrapher on the side for several companies and for private events hosted by wealthy individuals.

During one early afternoon in the middle of August, Ashley took Helen by complete surprise. Helen had gone out to run an errand while Ashley had just laid down on the couch in the living room. When Helen returned about an hour later, she found Ashley hovering in the center of the room up near the ceiling, in a supine position about eight feet up.

Helen came to a dead stop and shockingly exclaimed "Bloody Hell!" at the unnatural sight.

At the unexpected arrival of her mother being back sooner than she thought, Ashley lost her concentration and immediately fell out of the air, her back smacking flat against the hardwood floor with a very painful and loud THUD.

At causing the unintentional fall, Helen quickly ran over to her daughter out of concern and kneeled down to her, asking, "Ashley, are you all right? What in the world were you doing up there like that!?" still not being able to fathom the sight that she just saw before her.

Ashley moaned as she rolled over onto to her side a bit and sat up, one of her hands rubbing the back of her head. "A little bit of 'Stiff as a board, light as a feather', and 'There is no spoon', ow…, and maybe some 'Casper' thrown in." she admitted, wincing as she tried to stretch the kinks out of her neck and back, making her way to rise to stand before her mother who also rose up with her. Helen instinctively took Ashley by her arms to help her regain her balance, letting go once the initial swaying had subsided.

Helen still wasn't quite sure what Ashley was getting at other than referencing lines from pop culture movies 'The Craft' and 'The Matrix'. "I'm mean, can you explain to me what just happened and what you were doing to end up that way? How was any of that possible?" she questioned with a concerned yet straight face.

Ashley knew that there was no way that she would be able to get her mother to let this go. She was caught outright and was now forced to spill about the recreational activity she had been trying to keep hidden from her mother for as long as she could. Her time was now up.

"I was experimenting with my teleportation ability" she truthfully admitted with the tell-tale guilty face she made when she did something she wasn't supposed to.

At hearing that, Helen was a bit surprised, worried, a tiny bit angered, and somewhat accepting. "That was caused by your teleportation ability? How?" she genuinely wondered.

"Well, I was kind of using the ability to slowly phase into energy, more like the turning of a knob increasing the output rather than from off to on all at once like a light switch." Ashley replied as helpfully as she could. "I had been testing my theory that I could float if enough of my matter wasn't technically 'there' for gravity to affect."

Helen was honestly intrigued by this revelation. "How long have you been experimenting with this?" she asked eagerly, and a little bit more seriously than she had intended.

Ashley felt really guilty at this point. "For about the past seventeen years, starting near the end of 1919." She frowned.

Helen was slightly upset to hear that her daughter felt like she had to hide this from her for so long. "Darling, why have you never told me about this?" she asked softly.

"I didn't want to worry you. You said that you didn't want me teleporting if I could help it, and I thought if you knew I was playing with it that you'd get upset". Ashley said, looking down.

"Oh Ashley, you know I would never forbid anyone from exploring their natural gifts" she comforted. "I'm sorry if you thought I meant that you should never use it, I just said that so you would be more careful. While the chance of you catching an electrical entity like your father is incredibly low, though still a possibility, your chance of someone catching you teleporting out in town is far greater. At the time, you weren't very familiar with your surroundings and the landmarks of the era. I felt it was best that you didn't accidentally end up in a random location, spontaneously out in front of a crowd of other people." With a sincere look, Helen added, "I just wish that you had come to me with this so that we could have worked through it together." she revealed, reaching forward to gently lift Ashley's chin.

"Really?" Ashley asked hopefully.

"Really." Helen replied with a kind smile. "Now, how far have you gotten with this experimentation of yours? Can you show me what else you've been doing with it?"

At her mother's request, Ashley began to demonstrate to her all of the progress that she's made thus far in how she was able to manipulate the ability. "Alright. Here goes nothing." Ashley began the display with turning just her left hand into pure energy starting at her fingertips, followed shortly by the rest of her arm, and then the rest of her body before returning back into her solid form again. "I was able to control the ability enough to become energy without actually having to go anywhere, avoiding traveling through another dimensional plane in space. I can stay here, moving within this plane with time rather than outside of it. What you caught me doing earlier was trying to be only part pure energy, about every other cell or so, maybe more. Well, that's as precise as I think I was being. I'm not exactly sure."

Helen was beyond impressed. Ashley's pure energy form had somewhat reminded her of the wispy Guardian entity that she encountered back in 2009 while she was at the Mayan ruins she had tracked down to find a possible cure for her longevity. Ashley's form while still partially translucent, was more condensed and concentrated, staying pretty much that of her actual body; so much so that Helen could still make out the definition of Ashley's face with ease. While her atoms of energy displayed properties of being a fluid as she moved, they also seemed semi-static and preferred to return to stay relatively in the same position they were in once before, retaining a somewhat organized magnetic pull to one another. Her form was also very bright, a lot of the heat coming off of her had shifted along the spectrum into being visible light with a barely perceptible red hue. "Fascinating. How is it that you are able to control this?"

Ashley tried to explain to the best of her ability. She really didn't know how to describe it other than it was more of a feeling of her enforcing her mental 'want' for her body to do something. It was different from the specific desire to be somewhere else, in which the case to teleport required the use of an actual mental image of where she wanted to be. With phasing, she wasn't absolutely sure if her body actually did it exactly the way that she thought she wanted it to or not. Which is why more testing would be required, something her mom can now help her with. She wanted to explore the more physical aspect of it with another person.

Ashley then phased her left hand again. "Is it all right if I touch you while I'm like this? I've never had anyone else around to try it with. I don't know what it would feel like being in contact with another living object" Ashley requested.

Helen was curiously excited to know the feeling as well. "Of course" and offered her right hand out to her. When Ashley carefully came into contact with her mother's fingers, Helen couldn't feel much of any resistance. The closest she could liken it to was as if Ashley hand was like the consistency of dense morning fog. You could briefly feel it ghost over your skin, but you couldn't exactly touch it in any way. On Ashley's end, while she as well didn't encounter any physical resistance, she could feel this 'tingling' sensation as her atoms of energy could identify the similar yet different frequency of the atoms that made up her mother's cells.

"Can you feel anything?" Ashley asked.

Helen shook her head. "Not really, no".

"Hmm." Ashley said as she stopped the contact between them and un-phased her hand. "I want to try something else. I want to see if I can phase you with me". Helen nodded her agreement. Ashley then moved to take both of her mother's hands in her own. On the count of three, Ashley phased just their hands and the results were very unexpected. They both gasped at the sensation as it felt like both of their nervous systems had connected into becoming one shared being. Each of them could simultaneously feel the entirety of the others' body as well as their own. Helen could also now feel a tingling 'buzzing' sensation in her hands where each of their separate yet familiar energies came into contact with one another.

"Oh my God, this is insane!" Ashley freaked out. "I can feel you! All of you! I can feel you breathing and even your toes!"

Helen looked up at her from their now glowing hands, mirroring the same exact expression Ashley had of absolute shock and amazement plastered all over her face. "Don't stop or let go just yet." She requested. "Can you fully phase the rest of us completely?" And with that, Ashley did just as she was asked and it was beyond anything that Helen could have ever fathomed. It was incredibly strange and somewhat like an out-of-body experience, yet it wasn't. She could feel that she was physically still 'there', yet not 'there' all at the same time, as well as that of Ashley's being. She felt like neither of them were tied to the planet anymore in a sense, that while there was still gravity, that there wasn't any more sensation of weight, yet they weren't exactly floating weightless either. She now understood exactly the feeling that Ashley was trying to describe but couldn't. It's like she had the freedom to control and move her 'being', her energy, without any restraint. She could literally 'sense' three-dimensional space and her position within it like a quadrant system and that she could 'move' within it without actually having to move herself. Another surprising find was that she and Ashley could fully communicate with one another without any actual words, or sounds being made, conveying not only thoughts but also emotions, sensations, and memories. It was completely ubiquitous were they could sense each other's wants and desires with total understanding and reason without any effort or error. It's like they were each two halves of a single whole.

After a few more moments, Helen felt that enough time had passed in this state, and Ashley could sense her projected desire, returning them back to normal. The sudden rematerialization and pull of gravity caused Helen's knees to buckle out under her and she fell forward. Ashley caught her with a hug.

"Woah, easy now, are you good?" Ashley inquired as her mother regained her composure and straightened. She still held a loose hold on her mom, not wanting to fully let go of her yet, just in case. "It may take some time getting used to your body again." She instructed.

Helen took a few deep breaths, her mind was spinning with what just occurred. "That was incredible!" she huffed. "Almost ethereal, like you're one with the universe on an atomic level. I could _feel_ the fabric of reality itself and our place within it". Helen went to sit down on the piano bench just three feet to her left, taking Ashley by the hand to pull her over to stand next to her. "It makes a lot more sense to me now about how you were able to time travel." She coughed. "I never asked you this before because I didn't want to burden you or invade your privacy, but what were you thinking of when you teleported down in the sublevel?" she said looking up at her.

To answer, Ashley had to revisit her less than pleasant memories from that time. They were still quite painfully raw even after the passing of twenty four and a half years since that fateful night. "I was thinking of you, and how much I had hurt you." She admitted quietly, almost timid like. "There was this immense wave of regret that just swallowed me whole. It felt like a knife of betrayal had stabbed me though the heart, twisting ever deeper as I looked into your eyes, seeing you on the floor, afraid of me, begging for me to stop." Tears started dripping down Ashley's face. "I could feel my control slipping away from me again. Every microsecond that passed meant the closer I got to being forced to kill you and there was only one way I could stop myself from doing that. I knew it would hurt you, and I knew it would be the end of me, but I had no option but to take it. So I did." she quivered, finally letting out the rest of the breath that she had been holding in.

Helen stood and pulled her daughter into a firm embrace. She too had become glassy-eyed. It was hard for her to hear the emotionally charged statement without feeling a small form of regret for asking. "I'm sorry that I made you relive that moment, upsetting you wasn't my intention." She said with all sincerity.

"It's all right, I know you didn't mean too" Ashley solemnly acquiesced and pulled back slightly to wipe at her eyes. "It was almost a quarter century ago, but it doesn't feel like it. I can still remember every detail of that night like it was yesterday. Whomever said 'time heals all wounds' was a liar." She sniffed.

"I can't agree with you more" Helen calmly abided as she rubbed soothing circles into her back. "You can blame the Source Blood for that _lovely_ little ability". Helen rolled her eyes and Ashley gave a tiny chuckle.

"So, why did you want to know what I was thinking?" Ashley asked, feeling calmed down.

Helen took a step back, separating a bit from her. "I was trying to figure out how you came to me through time. Regular teleportation requires you to focus on a place that you can see or can remember being. However, you literally landed at the foot of my bed, within several inches of me in a location you had never been before nor even knew of. From what I felt just earlier, phased in almost a quantum like state, a lot of how it seems to work is that it is based on energy sensing energy, not just physical energy, but emotional energy." Helen was at a loss and could only theorize. "Maybe the EM shield played a part in opening a bigger rift through time during your teleport, moving you mostly through time and not space, I don't know. With you saying you were focusing on me so intently, I can't help but think that you got drawn to my same energy signature elsewhere. That it wasn't so much as the place you were going to, but the person you wanted to be with."

"It certainly sounds plausible" Ashley shrugged. "I had been trying to figure that out for myself, but I could never really make much sense of it."

Over the course of the next four years, Helen and Ashley would continue to experiment with her teleportation ability, testing the boundaries, even secretly on other people. What they found was that while Ashley could phase with inanimate objects, she was drawn more towards living objects such as animals and other people, in the particular cases of the stray orange tabby cat she named 'Dunkin' that she had taken in off the street and her Uncle James Watson; who eventually got in on the know about his future God daughter / niece also being stuck back through time. A key factor they uncovered was that neural connectivity only worked exclusively between Ashley and her mother. Helen surmised that it might have had something to do with genetic closeness, that they both emitted a very similar cellular frequency in order to allow them to connect so intimately. This was supported by the fact that Ashley could indeed detect genetic differences, including if a being was human, had traces of source blood in them, and if they even carried a 'Y' chromosome which emitted its own little buzz unique to only males of the species. All of this new research was very enlightening to Helen.


	7. Ch 7: 1940's

**1940s**

In the months, weeks, and days leading up to the night of the twenty-fourth of August 1940, Ashley could sense an ever-present and ever-growing concern loom over her mother, but she couldn't figure out as to why. Of course the Second World War was revving up, but her mother never reacted the way she was now when the First War had started nor the recurrence of any other tragedy for that matter. Over the last half year Ashley had been asking her mother infrequently if she was feeling okay, and she said that she was. So, Ashley continued to let it go, assuming that maybe it was a particularly bad memory plaguing her that she'd rather not discuss, such as like her avoidance to talk about the sinking of the Titanic; anyone could easily she why she refused. However, as the hours ticked by on that specific day and into the early afternoon, Helen's fearful anxiety increased more than tenfold, rolling off her in gigantic waves that undeniably heavily perfumed the room; indicating that there was definitely something deeply upsetting that was bothering her. Not only could Ashley clearly sense it from way upstairs in the attic while she worked on an art project, but for the last fifteen minutes her mother had been loudly and neurotically pacing around downstairs in the living room. By that point, Ashley had had enough if this mysterious behavior and made her way down through the house to confront her mother once and for all. When Ashley passed through the last doorway, she could see her mother shaking like a leaf and on the verge of hyperventilating.

Ashley was tired of not getting a truthful answer anymore. "WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" She loudly declared, almost angrily. "This has gone on long enough! You need to tell me RIGHT NOW what it is that is bothering you so much! You reek of being worried to the Moon and back; it's so strong that I can't even focus! And don't you dare lie to me and say that you're 'fine' because you are clearly far from it! Look at you!" she finished with a blazing glare accentuated by her eyes turning their vampiric shade of red. Helen still couldn't talk but her pheromones started to affect Ashley, activating her vampire abilities. "Mom! Look at what you're doing to me! You're making me all jittery and uncomfortable. You need to stop doing whatever THIS is, and TELL ME! PLEASE!" Ashley begged all vamped out.

At seeing Ashley getting over-whelmed, Helen tried as hard as she could to settle down, but it was immensely difficult for her to stay still now.

"London." her mother trembled before her, biting her lip.

"What about it?" Ashley questioned.

"It's eight hours ahead of us." she continued.

"Okay, ….and?" Ashley didn't have a clue has to how that mattered except it explained why her mother was incessantly fiddling with her watch, constantly checking the time every few seconds.

"The bombing of London…." Helen furthered in-between painful pauses.

"Yeah, it's been going on for the past few days…." Ashley still wasn't catching on.

Tears started pouring from her mother's eyes, blurring Helen's vision. "Tonight, the London Sanctuary gets hit."

"I know, it's listed in Sanctuary Network historical records. Why are you so upset over that? The building obviously doesn't get destroyed and nobody is reported as injured or dead." Ashley thought that her mother's actions were still inexplicably way over-blown. There had to be something more.

That is when her mother completely snapped. "Dear God, Ashley! Nobody is listed to have died that night because I never said anything about it!"

"Who?! Ashley pressed "WHO DIED?!" she demanded to know.

"MY CHILD!" Helen screamed, revealing the very last remaining secret she ever had. It was hidden so deep and dark within her heart that she had thought that she would have taken it to her grave.

Ashley was taken aback. "YOUR CHILD?! But I'm right here!" she proclaimed.

"NOT YOU! My other child! You weren't my only pregnancy, Ashley." Helen cried. "I thought that I could let this moment happen again, but I can't, I CAN'T!" she pleaded.

Ashley was not only shocked to learn this revelation that she had a sibling, but now everything made complete sense to her. "Why didn't you tell me?" she accused.

"I didn't tell anyone. Other than the night of your death, tonight was the single most devastating moment of my entire life. I couldn't bear it then and I can't bear it now." Came the strained admittance.

"Tell me how they die." Ashley wanted to know.

"The chances of you helping without getting caught are incredibly slim…." Helen started.

"Tell me what happens." she reiterated sternly.

Helen relented, having calmed down just a fraction enough to provide more details. "Down in the London Sanctuary's upper basement in the southeast corner is the cryogenic storage room. In the southeastern most corner, are two identical machines sitting side by side. Your machine is on the right, tucked in the corner, and your sibling's is on the left under the ground level window." Helen took a deep breath. "When the bomb hit, the corner protected you. Your sibling's machine however was almost completely destroyed. There was nothing I could do to save them. Almost nothing of the machine remained besides dozens of broken glass shards and metal pieces scattered everywhere throughout the rubble."

"When? When does the bomb hit?" Ashley quickly narrowed.

"In less than three minutes." she said looking down at her watch.

Ashley made a move to turn away from her, but Helen grabbed her arm to stop her. "WAIT! There's more that you need to know!" Helen panicked slightly, causing Ashley to pause. "You can't just take the embryo now, or you'll be seen! I'm there right now inspecting both of the machines! It wasn't until I turned to leave and barely made it to the stairs when the explosion took place. There's less than a thirty second gap. You'll have to watch me from the street level window to time it just right. You have to get in there before I touch the banister, or there won't be enough time left." She supplied hastily.

And with that, without a single word or nod, Ashley disappeared into a void of nothingness, leaving behind her distraught mother all alone. Helen leaned against the nearby door frame for support before she crumpled to the floor. Even though she wasn't very religious, Helen prayed to whatever God that may be out there that was listening. "Please, save my baby!" she desperately cried as she rocked, clutching her knees to her chest.

When Ashley rematerialized on the street outside the southeastern corner of the London Sanctuary, air raid sirens were blaring through the still night. She could hear plane engines in the distance getting closer, bombs already hitting other parts of the city. She had less than a minute. She looked for the window down low. It was so dark, it took too many precious seconds to find it. Once she caught sight, she teleported next to it. 5… 4… When she bent to look into it, her eyes widened as she saw that her mother was already more than halfway across the floor, reaching for the railing 3.. 2… in an instant, Ashley phased and almost tore a hole through space with how fast she moved. It was so fast that time had slowed around her, and she could see the initial ground impact of the bomb just a foot behind her. She didn't think, she just felt for the genetic material just feet below the window as she fell through the wall, through the machine, then through the floor to the next level below. When she landed chest first on the hard surface, time resumed its natural pace again. With an ear-shattering 'BOOM!' and flash of light, that whole section of the house violently rattled and shook on its foundation, lights flickered threatening to go out, and dust fell from rafters in the ceiling. Above her, she could hear coughing and a rapid shuffling of debris, followed by the agonizing wailing of her mother yelling "NOOOOOOOO!" as she desperately checked the aftermath of the machines holding her children.

When Ashley returned home, Helen sprang to her feet, rushing over to her. It was then that Ashley opened her hand to reveal the tiny bright ball of embryonic energy resting in the center of her palm. At the miraculous sight, Helen wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter's neck, telling her "Thank you!" in an almost heartbreaking sob. Ashley held her close, replying with "You would have done the same for me."

After a few more moments of calming down, Helen stepped back slightly to look down at the embryo again. "Is it all right…?" she started.

"He's fine." Ashley replied quickly.

Helen looked up at her in surprise. "He?"

"It's a boy." Ashley smiled. Helen responded with a bright look of her own at the news. "Now, are you going to tell me the story behind how this 'Bundle of Joy' came to be?" Ashley chided playfully.

Her mother closed her eyes and nodded, leading her over to sit on the couch. "The relationship your father and I have is very complicated, starting and stopping several times over the course of several decades. Do you remember when I told you that in 1908 the British government enlisted 'The Five' to track down Worth?" she asked.

Ashley nodded. "Yeah."

Helen continued. "After that whole incident, your father and I grew closer and he made good on his word about starting our relationship again; to 'Begin our dance anew' is what he loves to call it." She gave a fond smile at the phrase. "Following his lead to settle down, we lived in a small cottage by the sea. He wrote poetry and sonnets just as he had said he would. Everything between us was going wonderfully. He was just like the man that I had first met over twenty years prior." Her smile faded into almost a frown. "However, just like before, the happy times didn't last and he relapsed; returning to his murderous habits, ruining everything that we had rebuilt between each other once again." She finished sadly. Pointing towards Ashley's hand, "As for your brother, just like what happened with you, he was conceived near the tail end of that stint of our relationship. Coincidentally, both times I found out that I was pregnant were in the mornings of the same days I caught your father killing someone." Helen rolled her eyes and pursed her lips. "Each time, I had gone looking for him to tell him the good news. Needless to say, I never told him about either of you."

"If you never told him, then how did he find out about me?" Ashley wondered.

Helen shrugged. "Word of mouth, I suppose. I'm thinking that Tesla may have eventually let it spill since I had needed his involvement in helping me build the machine. I can't say that for certain though. What I do know, is that the only people who knew about you were the other three members of The Five and my father, who performed the surgery."

Ashley raised her fist slightly. "And him?"

"No." her mother shook her head. "The second time I never told anyone, not even your Uncle James. I was luckily able to reach my father just in time before he set sail for another expedition. Between the two of us, we built a replica of the first machine. Whenever someone would ask about it, I just told them that it was a backup for the first one." Helen took a breath. "Which speaking of machines, we now have a problem. I don't have another one built for him as I didn't think it would be possible to even save him. I also obviously can't have him now either, as it's still too far out from our present." She contemplatively worried.

Ashley then offered a solution. "I can hold him."

Helen looked at her. "What?"

"I can store his energy in my cells. His 'Y' chromosomes emit a signature ID that will make it easy for me to pull him out when you're ready to have him." She explained.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Helen asked, filled with hope.

"More than anything." Ashley replied, before moving her hand holding the tiny embryo of her brother to her heart, depositing him there for safe keeping. "There, all safe and sound." she smiled.

At that moment Helen felt a sense of relief ease over her, allowing her to return a genuine smile and lean over to gave her a warm hug. "Thank you."

"He's worth it." Ashley beamed back.

Helen couldn't help but reminisce about the past while also looking forward to the future. She now had her two children with her again, one sitting before her and the other carefully tucked away until the time was right.

Helen found this moment to be the perfect opportunity to admit another hidden truth to Ashley. "I never told you that tonight was the reason for why I had left London for Old City permanently. Once I set up the Sanctuary in Old City after my voyage on the Titanic, I had spent my time split between there and London, mostly staying in London to look after the two of you in your machines. The reason I kept both of you in London rather than move you across the ocean was due to three primary factors, 1) I preferred London as it was my hometown, 2) The machines weren't very portable, needing a constant source of power to run and were quite delicate in design, and 3) Two World Wars proved unsafe to travel by sea due to vessel subterfuge and blatant attacks on shipping lanes. There initially seemed to be less risk to just stay put. However, once the bomb hit the London Sanctuary and I lost one of my two children, I was determined to not lose my remaining child to the same fate, so I packed us up and left for a safer place that was practically as far away as I could get in the Northern Hemisphere away from the War. To move you, as insurance I quickly built a temporary backup machine that I sent ahead of us just in case. For you specifically, I had to invent a small handheld cryotube that had enough coolant in it to last the duration of the trip plus an extra couple of days as a safety buffer. I then transferred you to the cryotube and carried you on my person while your original machine was crated and stowed along. Once you were settled in Old City, I stayed there with you ever since, outside of the times I was required to leave for Europe to aid Allied governments in the War Effort. I had my protégé at the time make sure you were well looked after while I was gone." She took a pause before tacking on another truth. "Having already lost him decades earlier made your death all the more painful for me, as you were my second loss; having left me a completely childless mother by then." she frowned, shedding a tear.

Ashley leaned forward to give her mother a comforting hug. "I'm sorry. Thankfully, you now have us both again."

That uplifted Helen's spirit as she wiped the tear away. "Yes, I do. Thanks to you." she smiled. "I wonder what he will be like once he's born." she voiced out loud. "Perhaps like you, he might take more after your father."

Ashley's curiosity was piqued. "Am I that much like him?" she asked.

"Quite so." her mother shared. "Despite the terrible things that he has done due the will of the creature inside him, he is still a good man underneath it all. He would have been a wonderful father to you; you would have loved him, I am sure of it. Even though you inherited my hair color and my stubbornness, your facial features more closely resemble his; you certainly do have his eyes. A common trait the two of you share is that you are both 'Romantics' at heart." She gave a kind knowing look and Ashley blushed. "Each having an affinity for reading books, especially the Classics."

The closely held privilege Helen had of being Ashley's mother was that she came to know every facet of the girl since the moment she gave birth to her and saw the lesser known aspects of her personality and interests that she normally didn't often display very publicly or if at all to anyone else except for her alone. It was pretty simple to see when she was little as Helen observed what drew Ashley's attention, such as which shop panes of glass she would press herself against to peer inside of. As she got older, Helen began to find out mostly what she liked though requests from Ashley to order something for her. Of similarities, one of Ashley's passions that was the same as her own was that of learning other languages. Of the divergences, Helen obviously was more into the science of things and how they worked while Ashley actually followed more of her father's personality, sharing a love for philosophy and literature, especially for renowned dead authors such as Shakespeare. While Ashley wasn't great at math or manners like Helen wasn't great at poetry or tracking, her interest in the Humanities and the majority of liberal arts was most definitely a reason behind how she could cope better with tragic loss and death than Helen ever could, even though Helen was several times older than her.

Will would probably never believe her if she told him that Ashley's love to read was one of the reasons why her library was so big and why she had so many books around the property, especially in her office. Helen selfishly wanted to keep that little 'secret' to herself. She let him assume by default that it was all her doing, to collect things, which truthfully was partly the case. He did at one point wonder why she kept an old worn book of Grimm fairy-tales on a shelf in her office not too far from her desk, but she deflected it simply as being a case of abnormals being referenced within written 'popular culture', omitting to mention that her and Ashley used read it together when Ashley was small; the two of them cuddled up with warm tea and the fire going during harsh winters. She's not sure if he actually bought that white lie or not.

Other times Will would come to her after finding a particular book just sitting out in a random location, asking how it had gotten there knowing Helen's desire to keep things organized. She said that there was no particular reason for it being where it was other than a guest or visitor must have left it there, failing to return it to it to the library. That answer left him somewhat puzzled at who could have possibly chosen to read such an odd collection of material, ranging from Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid' in its original Danish format all the way to the tome of Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' in a first edition Russian printing followed by Jane Austen works and Mary Shelley. The most perplexing text he found was a deep classical French piece of Voltaire just casually lying about on a table not far from the kitchen. The true culprit Helen had always known was that it was Ashley who had been leaving the books out. Even though Helen had preferred that she kept the books in the library, Ashley preferred to take them to her own little private spots around the building, depositing them there until she finished them. Henry didn't really care or notice since he was always so wrapped up in making new 'toys' for them to test and the Big Guy also helped perpetuate Ashley's 'secret' hobby, preferring to leave the books be; only temporarily moving them when picking them up while he dusted. Even though it seemed 'messy', Helen got used to it as Ashley knew exactly where a certain book was. All Helen had to do was ask her about it if she couldn't find it on its shelf.

As for Will never catching Ashley reading, it was never really intentional of her to hide it from him, but more so just the result of the two of them having different schedules. Unlike Will where his work load allowed him to retire relatively early in the evening, Ashley's work meant that she would often stay out pretty late at night and into the very early morning. Once she returned home, she'd check in with her mother, have a shower, and then curl up with a good book for maybe an hour to decompress before finally heading off to bed to sleep. She curiously never took the book with her or kept any in her room. Helen didn't know for certain if Will ever made the connection between the books and Ashley, especially when the books stopped showing up once Ashley was no longer around the Sanctuary. That was one of the small things that Helen truly began to miss seeing around the house when her daughter had 'died'.

For the next few hours, Ashley and Helen fell into a comfortably open and deep conversation about John. This was the very first time that Ashley had honestly wanted to actually know everything that she could about the man that was her father, not the Ripper, since she had learned that it was John. This was also the first time for Helen that she was able to provide full detailed answers for her daughter without having to try to cover-up or avoid certain negative parts.

Ashley loved listening to her mother speak. She certainly did weave a wonderful story recalling how he had courted her all those years ago, winning over her heart, and how excited she was the night of his proposal and all throughout their engagement period. Leaving nothing out, including events leading all the way up to the night of her conception and to their subsequent fallout soon after. All of this legitimate talk about her father and her parents' relationship together got Ashley to truly consider what her life would have been like had he been involved in her childhood and adolescence, being raised by such a man had things been different.

With the conversation coming to a natural close, all of this major focus on her father led Ashley to think about her mother's father. "So, speaking of fathers, what are we going to do about your father? You think we can go two-for-two at preventing the Magnus line from becoming female living descendants only?" she optimistically wondered.

Helen wasn't so sure if they could and looked over at Ashley with a partially gloom expression on her face. "I'm still trying to figure that one out to be honest, but I would hope so. Unlike with your brother, the circumstances surrounding my father's supposed demise are a complete mystery to me. I don't know the exact date or time or which attempt it was that Adam powered up his machine and destroyed Praxis. I don't even know all of the physics behind what actually happened to make everyone disappear, if it was indeed the result of the rogue experiment. I never saw any bodies. All that I found of my father was his broken walking stick in Ranna's chambers. Whether that means that he was present when the accident happened or the walking stick got left behind during an evacuation and ultimately damaged during the building collapse, I just don't know. There's so many scenarios that could have played out leading to the result that I saw." Helen took a brief pause to think some more before continuing. "What I do have is a rough estimate of when it could have possibly occurred based on the date of the giant Psych Worm incident and a generalized location of where my father might have been, but again, there's no guarantee that my father and his walking stick were inseparable. If we were to do anything, it would probably mean sending a spy into Hollow Earth possibly months to even years in advance to keep track of both Worth's progress and your grandfather's activities." she surmised.

Ashley saw the logistical difficulties but was confident that they could handle them. That was, until she heard what her mother said next.

"As for who the spy would be, I don't think it could be either of us." Helen looked around slightly worried.

Ashley sat up straight. "Why not? Why can't I go? You know, play off the 'death card' thing? They won't be expecting me down there." She defended.

Her mom shook her head. "That's precisely why you can't go. Somehow Adam learns about your death and uses my relatable 'loss of a daughter' tragedy to try to entice me to go back in time with him. He wouldn't have pressed as hard as he did about that the entire time if he became aware in any capacity that you were actually still alive. Besides my father, I don't know who else knows about you down there or if they also know what you look like." Accentuated with a slight roll of her eyes she proceeded,"On top of all that, with all the Source Blood in you, the sensors would easily be able to detect it and you would light up like a Christmas tree on their scanners." Her last line would have been comical had it not been true.

"Alright, well if not me, then what about you? Why can't you go?" Ashley reached.

"I have already been there once before. Not only am I in their logs, but I would be highly recognizable especially to Adam's cohorts. There's also the fact that if I was found to have returned in secret I would have broken part of the agreement I made in our alliance between the Sanctuary and Praxis. I don't intend to find out the resulting consequences of that breach of trust." The disgusting taste of the protein shake came back into her mind again. That alone was enough of a deterrent for her, and will probably be something she'll never forget much to her dismay; it seemed like the taste had been chemically etched into the synapses of her brain.

Ashley was at loss. "Then who? It would obviously have to be someone we could trust implicitly to get the job done, but I can't think of anyone we know of that could disappear without affecting the timeline."

That statement gave Helen a very uncomfortable thought. "It might have to be your brother who goes." She let out a heavy breath. "He would be the perfect candidate as he's already outside of the events of the original timeline and has no known affiliation with the Sanctuary or your grandfather."

Ashley's mind stirred and her brows furrowed. She as well wasn't too comfortable with this course of action. "For him to go, it would mean that he would have to be born far enough in advance in order to not only just be old enough to go, but to also hopefully have plenty of field training to even attempt something like this. And out of everything, he'll still have to want to do it. He could say 'no'." Concern clouded over her face at all of the less than set-in-stone variables that this future mission was turning out to include.

"I know." Helen said closing her eyes briefly. "Honestly, even if he is capable and willing, the prospect of putting another one of my children in imminent danger makes me feel positively ill. Especially considering that I'm having to think this right now about the same child that I literally just got back today." At that, she leaned forward over her knees and put her head in her hands. "This reminds me of the moment I agreed to let you go with Henry into that Cabal facility. Every part of me told me to tell the both of you 'no' but I was forced to allow it anyway. See how well that turned out." She shuddered at the terrible feeling she got from recalling that past regrettable decision.

Ashley had no words. She knew that there was nothing she could say that could make that resulting doomed outcome any better. All she could think of to do was to try to lend some comfort by placing one of her hands on her mother's back to rub tiny circles beneath her shoulders.

After several more moments of the both of them sitting there like that in silence, Helen collected herself and decided to stand, turning to face her daughter. "The one thing that we have going for us right now is that we still have another roughly seventy years to go before we get to that moment. So let's make that time count." she commented inspiringly.

**Late 1940s**

Nearing the end of the decade in the summer of 1948, Helen had been working on a design idea for the new photoelectric power generator that she had planned to create for the new Sanctuary. During the process, she found that she would need to recruit Buckminster Fuller into the equation in order to help build it. She needed a semi-open and informal opportunity to get close to him. That moment was thankfully granted at the brief socially experimental Black Mountain University in North Carolina where faculty and students could freely intermingle with each other. There, Helen decided to lead a Fellowship program for a semester in which she shared an office with Fuller, allowing her a chance to gain his insights into geodesic dome structures.


	8. Ch 8: 1950's - 1979

**Early 1950s – Early 1960's**

At the arrival of the 1950s, it finally became time for Helen to start pursuing the excavation and initial establishment of the Underground Sanctuary. In 1956 she created the Great South American Mining Corporation. Not only would it help her dig the amount of space that she needed to be able to fit the entirety of the Sanctuary Network's current residents underground as well as creating extra room for further expansions, but it was a great investment as she could still make profits off it long afterward as it worked on other projects around the continent.

In 1964 Helen had made her way over to Coober Pedy in the Australian Outback and had decided to open a provisions store there. The small isolate town was perfect for not only making money as she would be a primary supplier for all of the work that goes on there, but it was also a great location that gave her insight into the culture of underground living and inspiration at incorporating natural structures into the architecture.

**Mid 1960's – Late 1970s**

After spending many decades bouncing around though numerous occupations, Ashley started to feel that it was finally time that she started to get serious about settling down to focus on what she needed to do in order to prepare herself to become ready to fully take on the responsibilities of helping her mother co-lead the Sanctuary Network. In order to become more involved in the ever-increasingly sophisticated financial aspect of 'Project Freedom' outside of just being a name on a stock holder certificate, Ashley had made her intentions clear that she wanted to ultimately take the majority of the load off of her mother so Helen could focus her energy elsewhere. To do so, Ashley decided to enroll into a local college to build credits for business management and to strengthen her math skills before transferring to a university to get her bachelor's degree.

In the spring of 1969 Ashley got accepted into Yale as part of the first group of women to be integrated into the establishment starting that September, and so moved to live close by to the campus in New Haven, Connecticut. Under their School of Management she completed her Master's degree in one to two years and then got accepted into several of their PhD programs. All throughout the 70s and into the early 80's, Ashley had been tirelessly moving from one program to another, starting with Accounting, then Financial Economics, then on to Operations, and then finally stopping at Organizations and Management. She didn't think that she would particularly need a degree in Marketing and so decided to not add it to her repertoire. Each program that she did take however took anywhere between the range of three to five years to complete depending on the required course load.

In mid-November of 1978 Ashley was sitting at her desk working on her doctoral thesis for her Operations degree when her mother decided to stroll through town and pay her a visit on one nice fall afternoon. It was barely just after Ashley had finished lunch when she stopped by which meant that the tea was still warm when she arrived. As Ashley scribbled away, Helen walked over to the left side of the desk to inspect one to the reference texts Ashley was using, flipping through several pages of the book.

"If you would like to read it, you can have at it. But just so you know, it's as dry as winter air" Ashley cracked.

Helen wasn't fazed by it being a less than entertaining read. "That's all right. Given how many scientific peer-reviewed journal entries I've had to read and write over the course of the last two centuries of my life I'm pretty used to it by now."

Ashley by this point was getting a little frustrated with how slow her progress on this paper had become and sat back in her chair. The work load was also starting to weigh on her. She wanted to relate to her mother and her own experiences in graduate school. "How was it that you were able to go through medical school TWICE?" she questioned a bit confounded with how much time and work that entailed to become a licensed physician with their own practice.

Helen turned to lean and sit on the edge of the desk. She looked over at her daughter with a cheeky smile "I was able to go through it twice because the second time around I had already known all of the answers."

"Ugh, not fair" bantered Ashley.

"Such are the perks of being a time traveler" her mother reveled.

Ashley had a hunch that her mother wanted something from her as she characteristically has never shown up to one of her residences just to hang out. Every meeting between them has had a purpose for one particular reason or another. Getting to the chase, Ashley swiveled in her chair to fully face her mother and asked, "So, what brings you by to my neck of the woods?"

Helen gave a warm smile at her intuitive daughter in which Ashley noted that there was a distinct twinkle in her eyes. "I decided that it's finally time that I have your brother. I've been monitoring my hormone levels these past few months and the optimum time frame for re-implantation would be over the course of the next two days."

At finally hearing the long-awaited-for decision, Ashley bounded out of her chair to give her mother a huge enthusiastic hug. The sudden embrace of her overtly excited child almost knocked Helen off-balance from her perch on the desk.

"You sure?" Ashley beamed.

"I'm sure" Helen confirmed with a happy laugh.

Ashley couldn't wait to start. "Where are we going to do the procedure?" she asked eagerly.

"With assistance from the Dean, I was able to schedule a small private room at your university's medical school to use tomorrow morning. I've already stocked it with the equipment that we need." She said brightly.

With that news, Ashley rightfully abandoned her work on her thesis for the time being. How could she possibly think about any of that right now when her mother just told her that she was going to have a baby?

The next morning couldn't have come fast enough. Once the two of them made it into the room, Helen outlined the importance of what was to happen next.

"For this procedure, while it will be a lot less involved than what I had to go through for your re-implantation simply because we will be using your phasing ability instead of open surgery, it doesn't mean that there's no associating risk factor. At this stage of development there is high chance for spontaneous miscarriage which means that during the re-implantation, we have to be very precise in the location in which the embryo is placed and take extreme care in connecting all of the delicate blood vessels to the uterine lining to make sure there is an established and secure blood flow, both supplying and retreating. I don't think I have to remind either of us about what the consequences are should we fail to do this right. We get one shot at this and one shot only." She heavily emphasized.

Ashley nodded. "I understand".

At that, Helen laid down on the medical bed and unzipped her jeans, pulling the top of her pants down low enough to fully expose the entirety of her lower abdomen to just above her pubis. As her mother got settled, Ashley took her brother from her heart with her dominant hand. Being that Ashley was left-handed meant that Helen was to hold on to her empty right. Using their neural connectivity, Helen was able to guide Ashley exactly through the procedure almost as if she were the one doing the placing herself. Helen knew she found the right spot when she could detect the nutrient rich tissue that was unique to the womb itself.

"Ideal placental attachment is near the fundus which is at the top of the uterus. If attachment is too low, the placenta could grow over the cervix either partially or fully, causing a condition called 'Placenta Previa' which can lead to a mass hemorrhage during labor; killing both myself and the baby." She warned.

"Good to know" Ashley heavily breathed.

Helen could feel the careful and deliberate positional adjustments Ashley made. "Up a little higher, over just slightly to the left, there, right there, just like that." For the next few moments, Ashley worked cautiously on making absolute sure the connection between her mother and her brother was complete, before slowing un-phasing him, feeling a strengthening pulse form between the two of them, bringing him back to life. Helen was grateful for the phasing this time around as it automatically took care of the temperature difference issue, making the transfer much less of a shock to the embryo to resume regular cellular functioning again from being in a cryogenic state; an extremely delicate issue that she had with Ashley. Once Helen was confident that the re-implantation was successful, she signaled that it was okay for Ashley to let go of him and to pull her hand out her body. Once done, Ashley then un-phased their hands and wheeled the ultrasound machine over to the side of the bed, passing the gel to her mother. Helen then took the transducer and expertly ran it over her belly until she found what she was looking for.

At finding a steady heartbeat and catching sight of tiny movements, the two of them each let out a huge sigh of relief. "And there is your brother" she happily smiled at Ashley, both of them grinning ear-to-ear. Helen then spent the next half hour performing a routine prenatal scan documenting measurements and printing out sonogram photos. At the end of the session Ashley helped her mother clean herself up.

As Helen got up off the bed and they made their way to the door to leave, she made a statement. "Now comes the hard part, for me to not jeopardize this pregnancy. If I've timed this right, his due date should fall somewhere near the Summer Solstice."

"Playing with the stars now are we?" Ashley light-heartedly quipped, easing her mother's tension.

Helen cocked her head to the side in realization, "I guess so."

When they got back to the house, a thought popped into Ashley's head when she saw all of her text books lying about. "I need you to teach me" she told her mother. "I now have seven months to learn how to deliver a baby. I need you to teach me how to be 'you' if something were to go wrong during the birth." Ashley knew her mother well enough to know that she would prefer a home birth. Not just out of personal preference for comfort, privacy, and control, but to also keep random other people from asking too many questions about her history, or lack thereof. Ashley herself was born in her mother's bedroom suite at the Old City Sanctuary and she suspected that her mother would want something similar to that this time around for her brother.

Helen understood exactly where her daughter was coming from with the request. "Seven months is an incredibly short amount of time to cram that amount of information. It's going to take a considerable amount of absolute focus and dedication to get through it all." She then glanced around the room, realizing how much work Ashley was already undertaking at the moment. "I'm sorry to burden you with this on top of all your school work, I didn't…"

Ashley instantly shut her mother down when she heard her apologizing for the inconvenience of having to do extra studying. "Don't be sorry! You have nothing to be sorry for. You having my brother is definitely NOT a burden! I've waited so long for this moment to finally happen and you've waited even longer." She took both of her mother's hands in her own. "The both of you are what's truly important right now, not some fancy degree that I can always finish later. You got that?" she said sincerely. Helen nodded and Ashley gave her a hug. "I'll be fine, I can make it all work out, trust me. Besides, being your lab assistant for years at the Sanctuary has already made things a lot easier." She comforted.

However within the next day, they immediately encountered a logistical issue involving the differences in geography between Ashley and Helen. Helen at the time was living in Ottawa and had expressed her wishes that she wanted the baby to be born in Canada. With Ashley wanting to be involved in the pregnancy as much as she possibly could, to be there for her mother 100% of the time, it meant that she would have to commute back and forth to Yale. Being that it was a seven and a half hour drive between the two locations one way meant that it would be more feasible to just teleport the distance. Her mother only agreed to it on the condition that Ashley restricted her teleports to only what was minimally necessary for classes, traveling exclusively between the two houses, nothing more. Something which Ashley was more than okay with.

A great unexpected benefit that Helen had gained with Ashley being around was that Ashley insisted on being her food tester. With her super enhanced senses of smell and taste she could almost instantly detect if there was something wrong with the food, discarding it before Helen could ingest it to prevent any possible harm to the baby from a food-borne pathogen.

As the months started to pass, to make things very convenient for pregnancy check-ups, they converted one of the spare bedrooms in the 4-bedroom house into a small doctor's office and lab, complete with everything that they could possibly need including their own personal ultrasound machine. Helen was also little by little donating small quantities of her blood weekly to create a personal blood bank just in case it was ever needed.

In the creation of the nursery, Ashley took over the majority of the small renovation project. Aside from getting help from James to secretly acquire and place a set of beautiful antique dark oak bedroom furniture her mother had originally kept hidden in storage for over a century at the London Sanctuary, she first had dutifully repainted the entire room the particular shade Helen had wanted, followed by installing all new baseboards and crown molding that still fit with the design of the rest of the house. On a nice bright and breezy day, they had opened all of the windows in the house which provided proper ventilation for Helen to paint a cute African savanna theme all around the room, filling it with tall grasslands, acacia trees, and little animals roaming all over. The room was then adorned with small adorable stuffed lions, elephants, and giraffes strategically placed around the space; sitting on top of the large wooden dresser and both end tables, as well as temporarily in the seat of the rocking chair and in the crib itself.

Things started to get really exciting once Helen began to noticeably show. Not only did both of them enjoy watching her belly grow to full term, making it more real for the two of them of his impending arrival, but it also meant more interaction with the baby as he was getting big enough to the point where they could each discernibly feel him move and kick. Ashley particularly loved tracing her fingers over her mother's skin, poking at his feet if he was positioned just right.

As if on cue with her prediction, Helen started to have contractions on the actual June twenty-first Summer Solstice in 1979. Being that Ashley didn't have any actual practical experience with delivering human babies, just knowledge, Helen had to rely on using the neural connection between her and Ashley, using Ashley as a medium through which she could easily check the dilation and effacement of her own cervix. While it was intimately awkward, they both understood that it was medically necessary.

They always checked in-between contractions every few hours, which made Ashley a little curious as to what they felt like. Helen waited to give Ashley a taste of it until she was eight centimeters dilated and the pressure to push started to present itself. At the moment she took her mother's hand, Ashley doubled-over and practically fell to the floor beside her mother's bed. The look of agony on her face said it all.

"I kind of don't want to have any kids of my own now" she panted. It was like whole body menstrual cramps, but about ten times worse. What she didn't expect is how steel-like the tension was wrapped completely around her middle, from the front to the back.

Once the contraction passed, Helen gave her a comforting smile "You say that now, but the pain is all worth it." She teased. To give Ashley some credit to her discomfort, Helen did opt for a completely natural drug-free birth. Unlike a lot of people, Helen knew her physiology could tolerate it very well. Ashley too, could tolerate large amounts of physical pain, however unlike her mother who had been gradually building up to that point for the last half day, Ashley had instantly fell into the deep end; being caught completely off-guard by the surprising onslaught of pain.

Once Helen reached ten centimeters after a seventeen hour labor, bringing them into the morning of next day of June twenty-second, she requested that Ashley fetch her Uncle James from London. She intentionally waited this long after learning from Ashley's birth at how over-bearing he could be during the whole process. She didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Not only was he brought in for moral support, but she truly wanted him to be present for the birth of his new God son / nephew. Plus, he took over the role of being the photographer to help visually document this precious moment, occupying his attention and leaving Ashley free to fully assist her.

By that point, Helen had moved off the bed to squat forward on her knees bending over several soft fluffy towels on the floor, partially holding on to the bed for support. She had started to become really hot earlier, stripping off more and more clothing until all that had remained now was her bra. Reaching down, Helen could feel her son's head begin to crown.

Ashley scooted closer to be within just inches of her. "What do you want me to do?" she asked, slightly terrified.

After taking a large strained breath and wincing, Helen replied with "Nothing, just be prepared to catch just in case". The burning sensation increased to being tantamount to fire with the next contraction as she pushed his head through. She could feel his body shift within her, her body positioning his shoulders to come through on the next contraction. When it finally hit, with a final great big push he slipped from her body into her awaiting hands. Helen let out a breathy sigh of relief, leaning back on her ankles as she lifted him to her chest, eventually positioning herself to sit comfortably on the floor. Ashley covered them with a large warm blanket as her brother began to wail and Helen removed the last piece of clothing she had been wearing. Within minutes of clearing his airway he had latched to a breast and began to feed, which was excellent news in helping to progress the passing of the placenta twenty minutes later. Helen had insisted on delayed cord clamping until that moment.

Helen was tired, hot, sweaty, in a mild amount of pain and discomfort as her uterus continued to contract, completely naked and covered in bodily fluids from the waist down, but all she could think was that it was so damn worth it to have finally brought her son into the world. There was no better feeling than to have him finally in her arms nursing as she placed a kiss to the top of his head which was full of dark colored hair just like his father's.

Ashley just sat in wonder at her new little brother. "He's amazing" she voiced.

"He's beautiful, Helen" said James.

Comfortable with letting the two of them bond for the foreseeable future until her mother felt ready to take measurements and run a newborn physical exam, a process in which Ashley would be needed to lend help, Ashley curiously asked her mom if she had picked out a name.

As Helen gazed down at the ocean blue eyes staring up her, eyes similar to her own that she knew were a shade that would never change, she replied that she had, partially.

"I've had a middle and last name chosen for several years now, but I could never come up with a first. I thought it only right to give you that honor" she said looking up at her daughter.

Without a single moment of hesitation, Ashley blurted out the name "Tristan".

Helen gave a knowing smile at that. "You always did like that name." She said as she tenderly rubbed the little boy's back. "And so it is, Tristan James Druitt". At the recognition, Ashley and her Uncle James shared a smile at Watson being made his namesake.

"You gave him Dad's name" Ashley said softly, kindly surprised.

"It's only fair" she gave a cheeky little smirk before getting more serious. "Besides, even though the name 'Magnus' has a lot of good weight behind it, it won't work with what we are planning to do; especially now hiding back through time." Helen briefly paused and gave a solemn look as she continued. "I've also unfortunately come to learn from my past experience of when I passed my name on to you that I inadvertently put a target on your back, to which I want to say that I am sorry."

"Awww, Mom, you don't have to apologize for that. I loved the name. So I got used to it being either feared or revered. What's Sanctuary life without a little bit of danger involved?" Ashley offered as consolation.

Helen shook her head, staying firm on her position. "That's something that I shouldn't have made you get used to, and I know you can see that." She insisted, giving her a 'look' to which Ashley backed down with a small acquiescing nod.

"No" Helen continued, taking a confident breath. "This little one is going on a different path all his own. No one will be looking for him with his father's name until long after now into the twenty-first century."

* * *

_Authors note_: Based on looking at the Sanctuary Wiki, the Underground facility could either be somewhere around Peru/Bolivia or Coober Pedy, Australia. I'm leaning more towards Peru since that is where she was known to have based a mining company and it's next to a known atrial pathway to Hollow Earth. I'm not so sure where the wiki gets the notion that she was buying land in Australia as all that is listed on the screen in the SCIU data base is that she opened a provisions store there. Though, researching the actual location does fall in line with mining and underground living, so who knows.

Also, **major note**. The actor that I envisioned to play Ashley's brother is Brendan Penny. Both Brendan and Emilie Ullerup play siblings on Chesapeake Shores and he in my mind is a very believable fit, coincidentally also looking like he could be an actual child between Druitt and Magnus. Also, I just like the two of them together. Other coincidences include his birth date, middle name, and location of birth. For his birth date, at the time I started this story I had no actual clue as to when Brendan's real birthday was as it wasn't listed on his IMDB page, which was kind of a bummer as Sanctuary uses the actors real birthdays as gauges for their characters. Anyways, I randomly guessed Brendan's age, always intending for my OC to be born around mid-late July in the years '79-'80. Surprisingly enough, over a month ago, Brendan himself posted on Instagram about his birthday, confirming it as June 22nd, 1979 (He posted on the 21st saying that his 40th birthday was tomorrow). I almost hit it dead on exactly by accident. For the middle name being the same, James, for me it was always going to be James after Watson. As for the location of birth, it just worked out. Ottawa is close to Montreal and New Haven. I didn't want to reuse Montreal as I wanted to keep with the 'use it and lose it' motto and I wanted it to be a major Canadian city. And a bit of an upcoming surprise in the next chapter, the actor has also coincidentally lived in Toronto, another city I had planned on using for my OC.

*Bonus Points* To anyone who thought of the well-known tragic 12th century Celtic love story 'Tristan and Isolde' when they read the name.


	9. Ch 9: 1979 - 2005

**End of 1979**

Adjusting to living with a newborn was hectic, but a more than welcomed change-up for the two immortal women. For the first couple of weeks of his life Tristan was mostly cared for exclusively by his mother, sleeping in a bassinet just off to the side of her bed. It wasn't until a routine finally started to form that Ashley was able to get more involved, such as helping out with his nightly feedings with prepared bottles of breast-milk as well as doing his night-time diaper changes to allow Helen to get a more restful and uninterrupted sleep. Ashley didn't mind though, as not only was that to be naturally expected, but she also really enjoyed being able to quietly sneak into her mother's room at night while she slept to cuddle with Tristan in the rocking chair in the nursery. With the addition of her brother into the family and her mother going on maternity leave to focus on caring for him, it meant another life change for Ashley in which she stepped into Helen's role in managing the building of the Underground Sanctuary. Helen had trusted Ashley's abilities enough by that point that she gave her free range to do whatever she wanted with it without a single worry. Ashley had only needed to come to her just a handful of times for a couple pointers and that was basically it.

**1980s**

It wasn't until Tristan got to be about two years old that Ashley shifted about half the weight of the project back over to her mother. Ashley absolutely adored her little brother and playing with him as a baby. Now that he was turning into a toddler running around all over the place, both Ashley and Helen could see his personality starting to form and come through. The more he aged, the more it became clear that he had not only inherited his father's charm and his mother's wit, but that the core spirit of him was ruled by Helen's love of adventure and for learning. He was definitely his Mummy's boy through and through, just the opposite of how Ashley had been her father's daughter. Having a little mini-Helen on their hands was pretty exciting as it made it really easy to introduce new skills to him through the concept of play, making him none-the-wiser at them prepping him for dangerous situations down the line, things such as enrolling him in martial arts classes while in elementary school.

One passion that the boy had all his own that never faded was his intense love for playing ice hockey. When he was four, Helen had signed him up for the pee-wee league. He was incessant about being on the ice and Helen never missed a single open practice or game, ever, even when he would eventually go through high school and get into college. She always made it a priority to be there for her son, another lesson she had unfortunately learned while raising Ashley was the importance that family comes first, no matter what. This time around, with Ashley helping out, she wasn't forced to compromise the time that she had with her child. When she was raising Ashley, being the sole head of the Network meant that she often regrettably became very busy, having to travel away a lot. It was slightly unfortunate for Ashley that during the time of her childhood it was also the time when the majority of the global expansion of the Network had happened. Even though most of the time Ashley came along with her on her business trips, the work Helen was there for didn't leave much time to go out and explore the locations they went to, such as Rome. Because neither of them wanted to repeat history, Ashley wasn't at all jealous off all the attention her brother was getting from their mom during his young age, in fact Ashley encouraged it, understanding that each of their situations were different through nobody's fault, it was just what it was and is.

**Early 1990s**

Being part of the Sanctuary meant that weapons training was standard. Unlike Ashley who enjoyed the thrill of shooting them, Tristan on the other hand while a capable shot, mostly enjoyed the mechanics of the weapons, taking them apart and marveling about their construction and how each piece came together to work in sync as a single unit. It wasn't so much a love for engineering as it was for the understanding of the concept of how simple and complex systems worked together. This directly fed into his desire to follow into his mother's footsteps to learn medicine. Helen was more than glad to start teaching him what she knew. She had an inkling suspicion that he held an interest in the practice as ever since he was really small he had always enjoyed helping people. She also felt that he was primly apt for it as he had also inherited her father's love for the Latin language. It wasn't absolutely confirmed for her until she found him one afternoon when he was eleven flipping through one of her old medical text books and she asked if he'd like to learn more about the subject, to which the boy eagerly agreed. Helen couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at taking her son under her knowledgeable wing.

While her kid brother was off doing his own thing, Ashley decided to indulge herself in aviation; another interest that she had gotten from their mother. By that point in time the family of three had built up their own small fleet of private aircraft, including several fixed wings and helicopters. While working on the Underground Sanctuary on the side, Ashley became a search and rescue helicopter pilot in the Yukon. Another interesting development for her was that in 1991 she had decided to change her name to 'Leigh Druitt', formally adopting the lovely moniker that her brother had bestowed upon her ever since he could start to talk, when he had struggled to say her name.

Developmentally, Tristan had been just like any other normal boy growing up, hitting all of his milestones predictably on time. Unlike Ashley who looked more like their father, with some of their mother thrown in, Tristan's features definitely had followed more of their mother, though it was undeniable at the same time that John was obviously his father; giving him a ratio of about 60/40 between mum and dad. Genetic testing at his birth revealed that like Ashley, he as well had inherited both of his parents gifts, and like Ashley, they were dormant. Ashley and Helen had a discussion together about it and neither were sure of what they wanted to do with that information, about whether or not to eventually approach him when he got older about possibly activating the genes, if he wanted to or not; so they let it be for now. However, they both agreed to not lie to him if he ever did eventually come to ask about his possible dormant abilities. It wasn't until he started to go through puberty and hit his thirteenth birthday in 1992 that the decision was ultimately made for them.

During the celebration that night while they were sitting at the dining room table, Ashley had been teasing him about the details surrounding his history of how he eventually came to be born.

"So, you kept me as energy in your body for all that time? Where?" he questioned.

"Right here in my back pocket" she said giving a light smack to her arse as she stood to start collecting the empty plates on the table before breaking out into a gigantic smile a few seconds later at the look of absolute disbelief on his face.

"Nuh uh, no way, that can't be true!" he semi-shot back unbelieving with a half-smile, looking between both his sister and their mother, looking a little wide-eyed at Helen for confirmation. All she could do however was burst out into a fit of giggles at the whole scene in front of her involving her two children bantering back and forth.

"It's true!" Ashley laughed back unconvincingly.

"Oh come on, Leigh. Where was I for real?" he asked again.

Ashley at that point gave in. "All right, the truth is that I kept you in my heart for safe keeping" she admitted with a warm smile. "Now that you know, are you going to help me clean up the table?" she asked with a light nod.

As requested of him, he moved to get out of his chair and grabbed a few items before turning to walk after his sister towards the kitchen. However, he made it there before she did, teleporting the short distance. Ashley almost dropped all of the silverware and china she was carrying at the moment of seeing his sudden appearance in front of her, stopping dead in her tracks with her jaw hanging wide open.

Helen rightfully so freaked out about her son disappearing unexpectedly in front of her. Immediately jumping from her chair and rushing over past a stunned Ashley to be by his side, taking him by his shoulders as he confusingly set the items down on the counter that just appeared out of nowhere in front him.

"Oh my God, what just happened?!" he turned around to face his mother, shock written all over his face.

"You teleported. Are you okay? How do you feel?" she worriedly asked as she held on to him, looking at him all over from head-to-toe to check and see that he was still in one piece. Ashley by that point had finished walking the last few steps to the sink to deposit the items that she was carrying before she then turned around to face her brother as well.

"I'm fine, but you said that I couldn't do that!" he stated accusingly.

"I did" Helen nodded.

"Then how…?" he wondered, looking at her directly in her eyes, searching for answers.

Helen was at a loss. "Right now, I'm not quite sure how you are able to." She said, truthfully confused. "You were obviously somehow able to activate your dormant genes all on your own." she shrugged.

"Wait, so I've had this ability all along?" he asked.

"Yes, you have." Helen answered.

"But when I asked you if I could teleport just like Ashley, you said that I couldn't because she wasn't able to until some scientists experimented on her, turning her into a vampire." he questioned.

Ashley and Helen then looked at each other before Ashley decided to jump in. "Yeah, I uh, left something out of that story." she winced. "While it is true that I couldn't teleport before the experiments, I could actually teleport before I was turned into a vampire." She admitted.

Tristan was confused. "Wait, what?"

"Teleportation is something that we get from our Dad." She spilled.

He lofted an eyebrow at that. "So, it's inherited?"

Helen and Ashley both nodded and said "Yes" simultaneously.

"Why didn't you tell me before now?" Tristan wanted to know.

It was now their mother's turn to wince. "I honestly didn't know exactly when to tell you. Being honest, I didn't tell your sister either before she found out for herself." She said motioning towards Ashley.

"That is true" Ashley confirmed. "You actually found out long before I did. I didn't even know I could until I was twenty-four." She pointed out that fact hoping it could in some way make him feel a bit better at being told hidden information.

Tristan looked back at their mom. "Why was it that you never told either of us?"

"It's somewhat of a complicated answer that involves less-than-pleasant details surrounding your father's ability. I was hoping that you would have been several years older than you are now when I finally told you." Helen told her son.

Ashley looked down and away at that point, she knew exactly where this discussion was headed and that it wouldn't be what any child would want to hear. Ashley was at least an adult that could fully understand the situation behind their mother's actions when she finally learned the truth that Jack the Ripper was her father.

"What do you mean 'less-than-pleasant details'? What did he do with it?" he probed.

Ashley decided to take pity on her mother as she knew this would be a very difficult subject for her to broach. "Tristan, you know how Dad's not here right now with us because we told you that mom and I are time travelers and him being here would interfere with our history?"

He nodded. "Yeah".

"Well, during the time that I was growing up he wasn't around for me either. I never knew him as a kid. I didn't know who he was or that he was even still alive until he randomly showed up one day at the Old City Sanctuary when I was twenty-three. There was a really good reason behind why mom never told me about him before that moment, the reason being…" Ashley paused to glance at their mother to make sure it was okay to proceed, to which she nodded her consent. "The reason behind why she didn't tell me is because his ability led him to become one of the world's most notorious serial killers of all time. You actually just learned about him in your history class today at school." Her mouth became very dry at that moment.

Tristan couldn't believe it. "Jack the Ripper is my father?!" he said wide-eyed.

"Our father, yes" Ashley nodded. "Having 'Druitt' as our last name isn't a coincidence."

"So teleporting makes you kill people? You haven't killed people, have you?" he asked Ashley worryingly.

Ashley felt really uneasy at having to reveal this next truth to her young brother. "Actually, I have killed people, but I was forced to by the Cabal which is a different situation altogether. But no, teleportation itself doesn't make you want to kill people. Mom, would you like to take over this part, please?" she somewhat begged.

Helen nodded and began to clarify the situation. "Do you remember when I told you about the Source Blood serum I created at Oxford that activated my longevity ability?" Tristan nodded. "Well, I omitted your father's role in the experiment. He not only helped me in creating the serum, but he also injected it, unlocking his teleportation genes. It wasn't until a couple years after the injection that the Whitechapel murders started happening. When it became known that it was your father who was the person behind all of the killings, everyone assumed that it was his ability that drove him mad until well over a hundred years later in 2010 when we learned that his madness was actually caused by a murderous energy elemental that has been using your father's body as a host. He somehow had picked it up during a random teleport at some point not long after the experiment, forcing him to kill all of those women. We were able to further confirm this as electroshock treatments from Nikola Tesla seem to appease the creature within him. Your father himself is a good man, just plagued by something that he can't fully control. It is because of the existence of this electrical creature that it makes it not completely safe to teleport until we can find a way to prevent another one from infecting the both of you. That's the reason behind why your sister doesn't teleport us all over the world and we still drive or fly to the all of the places that we want to go." Helen rubbed his shoulders lightly to comfort him as she finished.

Tristan was a bit sad to hear this news. "So what does that mean for me? You don't want me teleporting anymore?" he asked sincerely.

Helen tilted her head and a little smile crept up on her face. "Not exactly" She teased. "For right now I would actually prefer it you practiced teleporting more to get comfortable with the ability, learning how to control it. Ashley can help you with that. It'll make me feel better about you not accidentally ending up in wall or randomly who knows where out in public. After that, I would err on the side of caution, using it infrequently only when necessary. For the time being, of course. It won't be forever, I promise." She smiled to which Tristan gave her a tight hug.

The next day Ashley started lessons outside, just to make it easier and safer. Helen watched from a far, standing next to the side of the house about thirty feet away to give them plenty of space to train. While it was pretty much natural for her and her father as they started teleporting when they were fully grown adults, it didn't come as easy for Tristan as his brain and body were starting to undergo a major physiological stage of adolescent development. Left and right he failed to hit his mark over and over again, eventually falling through the air to get stuck in the limbs of one of the very large oak trees they had in their backyard, dangling upside down about ten feet off the ground. How that happened, Ashley had no clue as she had actually wanted him to just land on the concrete patio just about fifteen feet in front of him. At that point, their mother immediately stopped the train wreck of a training session out of safety concerns. Rightfully so, as the fall through the tree gave him several bruises and cuts, some of which were deep enough that Helen had to stitch them. She couldn't help but also think of the injuries he could have sustained had he'd continued to fall to the ground, or worse, him possibly dying had he fell from that same height and not had a tree to help pad his fall.

**Mid-1990s – Mid 2000s**

Throughout his early teenage years, even though teleporting was still an ongoing issue, Tristan otherwise did excel at most of his core studies throughout his schooling. History was a subject that he couldn't help but to know a lot about by default already due to both his mother and sister regaling him with their many stories, practically imprinting it into him since early childhood. However, unlike his sister and father, and even his mother to an extent, he did struggle in areas such as literature, philosophy, and art as the subject matter wasn't quite 'definite' enough for his analytically focused mind to fully grasp and comprehend very easily upon first encounter. Also unlike Helen and Ashley's love of many languages, outside of learning Latin, he also didn't care to dabble in trying to learn languages outside of Romance languages that share similar structures with Latin cores and roots, such as Italian, French, and Spanish; languages that were also easily readable and translatable script, anything else and he left it to his mother or sister to translate. On a better note, due to being a dedicated athlete at his sport, when he graduated senior high school in 1997, he had been scouted during his last season which earned him a hockey scholarship to the University of Toronto; the institution which by happenstance was luckily one of his top schools of choice entrance. Not only did it have a great hockey program, but it was also the place where he had wanted to attend for their great medical school as well. Another school on his list of candidates to potentially attend had undoubtedly been his mother's alma mater, but he immediately signed with Toronto and forewent waiting for an acceptance packet or rejection letter to arrive from Oxford or from any other university or college for that matter that he had applied to in favor of already getting into his top pick as it had perfectly checked both his boxes already. No matter where he had ultimately decided to attend, Helen was happy for him. She didn't want him living in the dorms, so she bought a house near to the the school's campus just like how Ashley had done while she was at Yale. His subsequent undergraduate school completion for a Bachelor's degree in Biology was in 2001, and his post-graduate medical school graduation four years later in 2005 was a momentously joyful occasion that Helen would never forget. James Watson had been present for the exciting special event and snapped one of Helen's favorite photos of the family; it captured the scene of her now six-foot-tall broad-shouldered handsome son in his cap and gown holding his newly earned MD certificate, flanked on both sides by Ashley and herself, all of them smiling brightly towards the camera. She couldn't help but stare frequently at the happy picture every now-and-again as the frame sat on her office desk in the now almost completed Underground Sanctuary.

The facility was pretty much structurally finished aside from the rail transport station she planned to build. That would require help from Praxis. Otherwise it still needed a lot of furnishings outside of the family's private quarters. Helen and Ashley had pretty much both moved there permanently by this point, outside of needed trips to the surface, to try to stay off the Cabal's radar. They weren't sure how far back their plans for world domination involving the Sanctuary stretched, as it could have well pre-dated their dealings with the Morrigan in three years' time.

2005 was also the year that micro-technology and tools for it had progressed far enough along that Helen was able to sneak into the Old City Sanctuary to 'borrow' some spare parts from the EM field generator and was able to create micro-versions of the machine in the shape of a wrist bracelet for both Ashley and Tristan to wear, creating a thin protective EM shield bubble around their pure energy signatures, somewhat similar to the way Tesla was able to naturally create a field around himself and Helen to avoid the scan from the Hollow Earth map in the Old City Sanctuary library in 2010. Now her children were free use their teleportation ability to come and go as they pleased, even at the Underground Sanctuary. It was easy for them to travel between the surface and the facility, unlike the issues John faced in getting to Praxis, as the facility was nowhere as deep in the Earth as Praxis was and was also not located in a pocket of surrounding dense magnetite lodestone, but instead in an area almost completely comprised of granite; materials she was keenly aware of that would affect their ability to teleport.

* * *

_Authors Note_: Apologies for this chapter being semi-clunky and hopping through time. I was starting to struggle with finding interesting ways to flesh out so much time and had to kind of bunch about twenty-six years altogether. I literally ran out of road from the show about what and when Magnus had been doing things in the past in regards to the progress of the Underground Sanctuary, so I'm just having to completely wing it from now on at my own discretion. This chapter primarily focuses on my OC and their personal progress as it was starting to get a little tedious and cyclical at having to come up with new explanations as to what each and every character was doing every couple of years (moving here, going there, having this occupation, etc.). So I just let most of what Ashley and Helen had been doing be 'off-page'. They obviously would have went and did several stuff while my OC was in school (outside of Helen always going to his hockey games). I just can't think of specifics that would match their character traits anymore that would fit so close to end of the time travel loop that wouldn't interfere. I'm also not very confident of when or if Magnus had actually started to primarily live in the Underground Sanctuary any point in time up until the moment she rejoins her timeline, so that's just me going out on a limb with 2005. For me it seems a bit way too early, still, but I also can't wait too long and have everything be last minute. Ugh, such is the hurdle of world building.


	10. Ch 10: 2008 - 2009

**Mid-Late 2008**

When summer of 2008 had rolled around, Tristan had just finished his three-year residency for internal medicine and decided to rejoin his mother and sister living at the new Sanctuary. He wanted to start learning abnormal medicine from Helen so that he could more effectively and efficiently help out once the place was fully up and running in the next several years. It was then that they informed him of their plan to save the elder Magnus and Tristan's involvement in it.

The three of them had come upon Gregory in conversation as Tristan had started to adopt one of his more unorthodox medical techniques and came to find his mother in one of the lounge areas to ask her more particular aspects about it. At the time, both Helen and Ashley had taken a break from their work earlier in the day; Helen was napping lightly on the couch and Ashley was off in a chair quietly reading a book about twenty feet away over by the glass wall that overlooked the waterfall. When he walked in, he accidentally stirred their mother awake in his excited-ness. As she sat up on the couch, she called him over to sit next to her to discuss what he wanted to know. After providing the details that he asked for, Helen then glanced over to Ashley, to which she nodded back. They had just decided before Helen fell asleep that today would be the day that they told him of their plan to save Gregory Magnus. Tristan wasn't so sure of what that silent communication meant, and just looked back and forth between the two women.

"Tristan, how would you like the chance to meet your grandfather?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"Are you serious, I would love to!" he answered back with a wide grin. "When will I get to meet him?" he asked excitedly.

"Hopefully soon, however there are some stipulations attached to you being able to meet him." she cautiously proceeded.

"Stipulations such as?" he questioned.

"You will basically need to be 'James Bond' to reach him." Ashley cut in.

Tristan was confused. "'James Bond'? Why would I have to be a fictional MI6 agent just to meet my Grandfather?"

Helen then laid it all out for him. "Currently your grandfather is in Praxis right now. In just a few months' time near the end of this year, he'll surface to visit me in Old City, accidentally getting caught up in the Cabal's effort to plan to take over the Sanctuary Network. That's how they learn of the Source Blood and decide to use Ashley as a weapon." She said indicating his sister. "After my other self and the other Ashley intervene, he'll travel right back underground to the city. It'll be about a year an a half from now when the issues with Adam Worth start to pop up in January 2010 with Kali and him sending spies two weeks after your grandfather uses the avatar chamber to send me a message about the Holomap in my possession. A half year after that in June 2010 Adam shows up at the Old City Sanctuary and the whole Hollow Earth fiasco happens, and then it's another half year after that when he completes his machine at the start of late January 2011 and I follow him back in time."

"Okay, I'm still not seeing what the issue is." Tristan stated.

"The issue is that not long before I go back in time, Adam intentionally set off his machine to destroy Praxis, possibly killing your grandfather. I found his walking stick in Ranna's chambers. I'm not sure of the specific date that it happens, just a rough estimate of early January 2011."

"And I'm guessing that you want me save Grandpa?" he deduced.

"Yes." both Ashley and Helen nodded.

"Okay, I can do that. Asides from me possibly dying a second time, how hard can it be to grab him and leave before it hits?" The look of confidence on his face faded with the details his mother told him next.

"Pretty difficult. The first problem is the Source Blood in you. Due to the Praxians having a warring history with the Sanguine Vampiris, their defenses are set to go off at any detection of vampire DNA. Being that you have less traces of the Source Blood in your system than I do in mine, hopefully the wrist bracelet you are wearing is enough to cloak you more effectively than the shield Tesla made for me. The second problem, is that you need to earn the Praxians trust first, which will mean that this operation is going to take a considerable amount of time for you to complete. You'll have to work your way there slowly step by step to make your way into the city. You can't just show up there and say 'Hi'."

"How long do you think infiltrating the city will take?" he asked.

Helen winced. "I'm hoping you'll leave fairly soon, which means you'll be underground for just over the next two and a half years. Why I've decided now is a good time is because I don't want to make your appearance seem suspiciously connected to when I visit Hollow Earth in the middle of 2010."

Tristan took a breath. "This is definitely sounding like a deep-cover spy op." he agreed. "Why worry about a connection?"

"And this leads me to my third problem. I can't have you connected with Adam Worth, as I need you in the city to save your grandfather. If they have doubts of your intentions, they might decide to 'dead you' and lock you up in their prison. I can't have that. As far as the 'James Bond' parts goes, you'll have to not only gain access with my father without tipping him off that your connected to us here, but you'll also have to spy on Worth to keep track of his progress. You'll essentially have to be a triple agent between Praxis, Adam Worth, and Here. It's a tall order to ask of you." She exhaled, and reached over to take one of his hands into her own.

His mind started to swim. "Wow, no pressure" he half-laughed out of stress. "So, if I have this correct, you want me to get into to Praxis without them connecting me to Worth, while simultaneously also getting close to Worth to learn his plans so I can save grandpa before he can set off his machine all the while not telling my grandfather who I am? I get the first two parts, but why not the last one?"

"You can't get too close to you grandfather because it'll show favoritism, possibly tipping Worth off about your connection to me. If Adams knows you aren't a true follower of his, he won't let you get close enough to his plans about his machine." She stated. "You have to try to stay as completely anonymous as you can with everyone you interact with, not only for this to work, but to also not stick out too much." She stressed. "And that leads me to a fourth problem. You'll somehow have to do this all while avoiding me when I go down there. My other self is to not become aware of you in any capacity."

Tristan leaned back into the cushions. "Great, and I'm assuming during all of this that I can't contact either of you?" he asked almost sarcastically, looking from his mother towards his sister. Hoping that matters didn't get worse for him.

Ashley shook her head. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to help. Not only will I not be able to get close to the city by any measure due to being a vampire, but Mom said that Adam knows about my other self being dead. She doesn't know how he knows about that. It obviously wasn't from Grandpa, as he didn't even know I had died until she told him during her trip down there, which means I'm theorizing that Worth met someone on the surface who knew of the Sanctuary in order to find Mom to get to the holographic map. If I'm right, that means you can't be down there talking about us. Also, if I was somehow able to even get into Praxis undetected, my cover would definitely be blown as Grandpa would immediately recognize me. And depending on the time he sees me, it may or not be after the time Mom visits him, which may or may not lead to him telling her about me, which isn't good as Mom's other self didn't know I was alive before she went back into the past. It's very messy to think about what could happen if I get involved." For as much as Ashley wanted to go herself to see the city with her own eyes, she understood that Tristan visiting the city without her would just be another opportunity for him alone that she herself would be denied as they were headed on different paths to the same location in the end. Such was the way of her life back through time and she accepted that without issue. Currently, she was making sure to stay her course to continue to get the new Sanctuary ready for mass habitation in just less than three years' time.

Helen then topped off the conversation with her own reason for not being able to interfere in the slightest way. "Until I finish my time loop to return to my present timeline in late January 2011, no one can know about this place, not even Praxis. When I was there, I made an agreement between Praxis and the Sanctuary Network that we would mutually keep to our own domains. If Praxis finds out about here, and me, it'll spell disaster, especially if they find out I'm here before my other self even visits Praxis. When I went there, they had no knowledge of me what-so-ever, and I'd like to keep it that way. That means, unfortunately, that I definitely can't help out either." she said somewhat sadly.

Tristan was beside himself, but even after everything he had been told, his mind was made up. "Just so you know, this whole plan sounds stupid dangerous. But I'm in." he said taking a deep breath.

"Are you absolutely certain you really want to do this?" Helen asked, feeling a pit of maternal doubt grow within her stomach as she was unsure if she herself was really going to allow her child to go through with this decision. Almost hoping for some 'miracle' that he would change his mind to make this whole situation 'magically' go away to force them to try something else. She knew deep down that that fantasy expectation was never going to become a reality and that Tristan going to Hollow Earth had to be done. This was the exact moment Helen had somewhat feared about for her son for the last sixty-eight years since the day Ashley saved him as an embryo; placing her baby in the path of harm's way with every swing of the pendulum, something that was quite literal this time around.

Tristan nodded. "I'm sure. Plus, it's not like I have a choice. I can't just let Grandpa die down there and on top of that I really want to meet him." He said with a small half-pained, half-excited look to his face.

At his confirmation, Helen leaned over to pull him into a tight hug as her eyes started to water, blinking back tears. Ever since Tristan was a small boy listening to her tell stories about his grandfather, she knew how much he had been looking forward to the day that he could finally get a chance to meet the great Dr. Gregory Magnus in person, and that he wouldn't give up any opportunity to do so for the world. "I know you do, sweetheart. Even though we need you to go, at the same time I want you to know that it wasn't easy for me to ask this of you. I really don't enjoy the idea of possibly losing you again through all of this." She said sorrowfully. "I just wish that all of this could be done without putting you in danger somehow, but unfortunately I don't see any other way to save him." She admitted while rubbing his back. Tristan let her have this vulnerable moment of comfort for as long as she wanted. He knew, with how close they were as he grew up and still were right now, how much he truly meant to her and how hard this must be for her being his mother. Even if it were possible for him to not able be able to see it for some strange reason, Ashley would have definitely told him just as much.

The next day was spent packing tons of supplies for his expedition through the tunnels. Ashley and Helen made sure to triple check that he had everything that he needed, including enough MRE's, lots of water, a small portable oxygen tank, a well-stocked med-kit, a Swiss Army knife, a Leatherman multi-tool, a headlamp, and even redundant supplies such as extra batteries, an extra flashlight, and a spare change of clothes just in case. With the location of the Underground Sanctuary being just off of an arterial pathway that led into the rest of Hollow Earth, it meant that they weren't too far from an outlying mushroom farm about forty miles away. From there, the plan was for Tristan to work with the nomadic tribes to build credit, before eventually being able to get papers to travel the several thousands of miles to the other side of the globe through a transport module to trade product in Praxis.

When it was time for him to set off the next morning, after an almost ten minute farewell scene standing by the tunnel entrance, Tristan was finally able to give Ashley a hug goodbye and then give one as well to his mother. Helen was understandably having a hard time letting him go; starting to worry like most mothers typically do about being separated from their child, except unlike most mothers Helen had a definite good reason to cause for concern.

"Make sure to stay safe." she cautioned heavily, still holding on to him in a loose embrace.

"I will, I promise." He smiled back at her. "I won't be gone forever, I'll be back before you know it." And with one last extended hug and a kiss to her temple, Tristan bid farewell to his mother and sister before disappearing with his ruck sack into the tunnel to begin his journey towards the farm.

As he left, Ashley had put her arm around her mother to lend support. "He'll be fine. He's been off camping by himself and exploring caves long enough to be able to do this." she tried to comfort as they began to head back towards the facility.

Helen took a breath. "That does make me feel a little bit better, except for the fact that the Canadian Rockies didn't have Basilisks slithering about." She finished with a small shake of her head.

Going through the tunnels wasn't as easy as Tristan had initially thought it would be. On his way, he almost got lost six times due to the forks in the path, even with the help of markers placed by Ashley several decades before along the forty-mile stretch of the winding, dark, narrow, jagged, and uneven terrain. After almost five days of travel filled with many rest breaks, he finally made it to the outskirts of the farming land. Luckily for him, the farmers took pity on the lost dirty surface dweller who clearly looked to be in need of some help. They ultimately allowed him to join their group as their harvest was expectantly bigger this season and one of their harvester machines had broken down.

For the next year Tristan traveled with the group as they rotated through several fields in alliance with other farmers. With his medical experience he had somewhat fell into the role of becoming the small tribe's defacto healer. Tristan was aware that he couldn't press too hard about getting to Praxis, so he patiently waited his turn to eventually get chosen to go when the group felt more comfortable with him. Clearance passes were hard to come by and pretty expensive. It wasn't until about the fifth time that the group had visited one of the trade outposts to get their passes that Tristan ran across Gregory Magnus by accident.

**Late 2009**

As part of the Praxian medical guild, Gregory was currently tasked with making his way through the outlands with a small team to keep outpost physicians up-to-date on supplies; making sure they were well-stocked. Being that Tristan was his group's healer meant that it was mandatory for him to attend the meeting that was called for all medical personnel. It was there that he finally got to meet his grandfather for the first time.

Near end of the meeting when the healers started to disperse and form more one-on-one discussions, Gregory didn't find the new enthusiastic face in front of him to be too out of the ordinary until the boy made a mistake of mentioning something that he knew only one other person would have known. Being the intelligent doctor that he was, Gregory started to secretly probe Tristan about what he knew of this secret. Gregory wasn't sure how it was possible as Helen never mentioned that she had finally birthed her second child while he visited her Sanctuary almost a year ago, only Ashley, but the more the young man in front of him talked, the more he could see the resemblance between his daughter and her ex-fiancée. Not only that, but his personality reminded him a lot of Helen too. Tristan didn't realize what he had accidentally done until it was too late and his grandfather pulled him aside to privately call him out on it. Being that Tristan felt like he was caught between a rock and a hard place, he eventually let everything slip as there was no denying that the jig was now up.

Back at the Underground Sanctuary, Helen and Ashley were sitting at the dining table in their private family communal area enjoying lunch when suddenly out of the blue Tristan walked into the room followed by the one and only Gregory Magnus right behind him. At the unexpected surprise entrance, both of the women shot straight up out of their chairs with looks of absolute shock and horror on their faces. Not disturbed by their reaction, Tristan made his way over to give his mother a big bear hug and a kiss on the cheek and then moved on to Ashley, to which after he gave her a hug she promptly gave him a whack on the back of the head as their mother warmly hugged their grandfather.

"Ow, what was that for!?" he grimaced as he rubbed his head.

"You weren't supposed to get him involved, remember?!" Ashley pointed out sternly, giving him a glare.

Tristan gave a massive shrug in response, raising his hands in the air. "He figured it out, I'm sorry!" he apologized.

"What gave him away?" Helen asked her father with a sigh, shifting her weight on her feet.

"He mentioned an old technique I used that only you could have known about." Helen cast her eyes over at her son at that. She had a pretty good idea that what Tristan brought up was the same technique he asked her about just before he left on his trip. "Go easy on him, it wasn't his fault, the boy is just a terrible liar." Gregory softly smiled.

Helen closed her eyes. "What did he tell you?" she asked waiting for the inevitable other shoe to drop. If she knew her son well, he would be just like Ashley and blather details when he got caught red-handed.

"He informed me of your plan and from what I could gather, you're going to need my help. I need you to tell me more details about what is supposed to happen in your expected timeline, especially in regards to my involvement with the Holomap and Adam Worth. How was it possible that he was able to escape Praxis? He's currently in a state of suspended animation in their prison as we speak." Gregory questioned.

Helen then indicated for the group to sit down at the table before she explained. It was going to be a long story. "In less than half a year from now, roughly around early January 2010, Adam gets reanimated with the help of Fallon, Ranna's chief counsel. Fallon thought that Adam could help her and other rogue factions perform a coup to dispose Ranna and Praxis' control over Hollow Earth." Gregory's eyebrows perked up at hearing the soon-to-be treasonous betrayal. "Not long after Adam escaped, you accessed the Avatar Chamber without Ranna's knowledge to give Will a message to inform me of the holographic map; gifts that you gave me for my twenty-sixth and thirty-fourth birthdays. Several months later in June 2010, Adam finally shows up in Old City looking for my map. We never found out for ourselves how Adam knew I had the map, but I suspect that Fallon was the one who told him."

Helen took a pause when a thought occurred to her. "What I don't understand, and maybe you can help me with this Father, is I don't know how Fallon would have known I had the map? When I ended up visiting Praxis not long after Adam found me, Ranna and I ran into you hiding down in the tunnels while we treated Kanaan. As you talked about when you accessed the chamber, you told Ranna that it was important that I needed to know that I had the map. During the discussion it seemed like it was common knowledge for her to know about me having possession of the map. How did she know that I had it? Did you tell her you gave it to me? Why? And how did you come about giving it to me as two separate gifts? For just how long have you known about Hollow Earth and Praxis, Father?"

After piecing together the information he was just told from his daughter with what his grandson mentioned earlier at the outpost, as well as with his own personal knowledge of past events, Gregory laid forth what he knew of this situation to answer Helen's questions to the best of his ability that he possibly could. "I found out about the existence of Hollow Earth during one of my early expeditions when you were very young; it was during then that I came across the map in some ruins. As I planned to eventually travel to the city, I decided to give the map to you for safe keeping, hoping that one day you could join me down here. In regards to Ranna knowing, yes, I told her. When I arrived at the city they wanted to know how I had found it, to which I told them that I had a map. It's noted in their logs that I gave it to you. I'm theorizing that from what I was told from yourself and Tristan about Fallon working with Adam and Adam's need to escape to the surface and subsequent need to get back into Hollow Earth undetected to get parts to finish his machine, that Fallon possibly searched through the logs to find a map for him before he left, coming across your name." Once Gregory finished, he now had a few questions of his own. "Can you tell me further about how it is Will that I communicate with in the avatar chamber and why you were having to treat Kanaan? He's in good health as of right now."

Helen started her long reply. "Just after Adam gets reanimated from prison, on the surface there's coincidentally an issue involving Kali, who I know as Big Bertha. A man named Edward Forsythe pieced together the information about the Cult of Kali, and gets a hold of the Macri which can control Kali. During this event, Will ends up becoming a host to the Macri, giving him a connection to the avatar chamber. Forsythe then comes along to force himself as the host, leading Will to eventually decide to die temporarily to grant him access to the chamber one last time as a former host. During that final time is when you access the chamber to pass along your message to me about the map. The Macri ends up dying from the stress of Forsythe forcing Kali to make new land. In the Sanctuary's effort to quell Kali to stop her, one of the other Sanctuary Head's named Terrance Wexford decides to try to kill her using depth charges. This only angers her though, causing her to send out a giant blast of kinetic energy, causing a massive tidal wave. Down in Praxis, Ranna used her connection to Kanaan to launch a counter wave off Pakistan to mitigate the wave from Kali, and has the other hyperspecies abnormal in the chamber to create a massive algae bloom off the coast to change the viscosity of the water. Eventually, we learn all of this mass geologic activity causes parasitic trachnoids in Hollow Earth to get forced into new territory. With Kanaan for some reason getting sick over the next several months, he eventually stops creating new tunnels, which increases the pressure on the Mantle layer, leading to threaten the Earth with potential catastrophic volcanic ruptures. While down there, both you and I had initially suspected that Kanaan was suffering from renal failure due to the striations on his body similar to a Tunisian sauropod. By the time I went to treat him with a steroid-based form of insulin to try to kick start his kidney functions, you had already done so before he burrowed too deep and it had no effect. It wasn't until we made the connection to all of the displaced trachnoid nests the moment of that we figured out he was infected with a trachnoid queen. With help from Ranna, I was able to cut the parasite out of Kanaan and he then goes about making new tunnels, lessening the ever increasing amounts of seismic activity that had been occurring underground around the city."

As she finished, Helen was again hit by another moment that she couldn't explain as how or why it happened. "All of this makes me wonder something" she voiced confused, looking at her father. "I never asked you how you knew to warn me about the map and Adam. I can't help but think that maybe me telling you this information right now is possibly how you came to know to tell me?" Helen bit her lip. "Otherwise, the only other way I can think of, is that maybe Fallon intentionally dropped this information to you and Ranna about Worth's plan to get to my map as a way to provide some cover-up for herself; to give something to the Senate as she was the one tasked with hunting Adam down. Maybe as a possible way to explain search activity through the logs to decriminalize herself, saying it was Adam who did it instead? I honestly don't know if any of this happened and I'm just flat-out hypothesizing at this point. It's all very mind boggling to me."

Gregory shrugged his shoulders as he as well didn't know which scenario could be right. "Either option sounds plausible. I wish I could tell you right now as to which one it was, but as we all know, I haven't reached that time yet and as such I can't say for certain how I came to know to warn you."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see about that." She replied. Even though she still didn't have a certain answer to that question, Helen was at this moment certain of another thing. "However, before we even get there to finally find out what really happened, I do know that out of everything that is to happen, it is that you cannot act on any of this information at all before you are supposed to. When you meet my other past self in about a year, all of this has to be brand new to you, especially about Kanaan's health and Fallon's involvement with Worth. She wasn't outed as a traitor until just before Worth escaped. You have to just let things play along outside of getting into the avatar chamber when you're supposed to, to fulfill that action. After that, from what I know is that you hid yourself down in the tunnels for about a half year until you eventually meet me on my way to treat Kanaan. I also think it goes without saying that you shouldn't mention anything about 'this' me, or this moment, or anything about now and the new Sanctuary to anyone, including my other self, especially not about time travel, Ashley being alive, or Tristan existing." She emphasized.

Gregory nodded. "You don't have to worry about me spilling secrets" he smiled with a wink of his eye before continuing. "Being that I can't completely act off this information before your trip to Praxis in a year, tell me what information that I can act on after you leave, such as Tristan's involvement with Worth. He mentioned that Worth eventually destroys Praxis. How so?" he inquired.

"Just over a year and a half after the start of the Kali incident, Worth completes his machine in late January 2011 and sends the two of us back in time. Before he finishes however, he deliberately sets his machine off to destroy Praxis sometime in early June 2011. Just before I left my time, John and I had traveled down to Praxis to check out what was going on there, as Ranna wasn't responding to our communication attempts to learn as to why Hollow Earth abnormals had started to come to the surface. While we were down there there, we found your broken walking stick in Ranna's chambers. I sent Tristan down to Hollow Earth now ahead of time to eventually spy on Adam, to keep track of his progress on his machine, hopefully learning ahead of time of when he plans to set it off in order to warn the city and evacuate its inhabitants, including you. At seeing your walking stick, I thought you had possibly died and I want to avoid that potential outcome from coming true." Helen said softly.

Gregory gave her a comforting smile as he reached over to give her hand a squeeze. "We'll just have to make sure that everyone makes it out safely, then." He assured her. "As for Tristan, I'll be able to get him into the city. When we return back to the outpost in just a few more minutes, I'll vouch for him and take him along with me on our way back to Praxis."

Just then, Helen remembered something important. "Father, make sure he doesn't go with you when you treat Kanaan. You and your team get caught in a magma pocket explosion, killing everyone but yourself. It would also be preferable that the two of you are mostly separated once you get to the city, to avoid Ranna and the council targeting him once you breach the chamber. Another thing, for the both of you, after my other self leaves Praxis and Fallon gets caught, Ranna imposes Marshall Law on the city to hunt down anyone part of the rebellion. It'll be very difficult to go snooping around looking for Worth. I'm hoping you two can look out for one another to accomplish that task without too much issue. Last but not least, when the time gets near to when Adam sets off his machine, remember that it emits a particular energy signature. That's how Praxis has been tracking him all this time. I know he set it off at least once in mid-late September 2010 before he uses it to destroy Praxis in early January 2011. Look for a time dilation bubble that travels through the Earth's crust up to Carentan, France. It had been active for a couple weeks prior to my involvement on October 8th, 2010 to nullify it. That will be a warning signal to you to possibly start creating an evacuation plan of sorts, or at the very least get the two of you out of the city. He may very well set off the actual explosion not long right after that. I'm not sure how long it took for the Psych worms to surface once the containment fields from Praxis went out. The worms surfaced in the New Mexican desert just above the Mexico border about a week before I went back through time with Worth at the start of late January 2011."

Gregory nodded his understanding and then looked down at his watch. At seeing the time, he made his way to stand and motioned for Tristan to come over to him. "Thank you for all of this invaluable information Helen, especially for the heads up about Praxis. Unfortunately, as much as I would like for us to stay with you and Ashley longer, we really ought to be heading back to the outpost before our disappearance becomes noticeable." And with that announcement, Gregory and Tristan moved to each gave their goodbye hugs and kisses to Ashley and Helen before teleporting away, leaving the two women to be alone once again with their meal.

* * *

_Author's Note_: I definitely hurt my brain trying to write this chapter having to stuff so many details in it and their respective time frames. I had intended to make this chapter longer, but I honestly can't do it and need to separate it into two parts.

In this chapter I've especially had a hard time trying to figure out the whole deal with Helen having the Hollow Earth map. In the show, there is a scene with Fallon and Worth where she says she helped Adam get to Helen Magnus' map just before Adam stuns her. In another scene when Helen, Ranna, and Kate meet Gregory in the tunnels, Gregory tells Ranna that he had to let Helen know that she possessed the map to which Ranna said he should have come to her first. I had to come up with some way of connecting all of that because the show writer's left a GIANT plot hole of how Gregory could know that Adam was going to go after Helen for her map and how Fallon even knew Helen had a map. This whole thing including getting wrapped up in Gregory getting 'lost' on his way to Mecca (retconned by the writers for him to have been in Praxis all this time instead of being frozen as seen in the episode 'Warriors') and to also have known about Hollow Earth for a very long time before that to have sent her the Praxian map as gifts for her respective birthdays ("My father never gave me a gift without significance") is REALLY MESSY, OH MY LORD! I swear, even though I love this show and it's basically my favorite show of all time, I sometimes wish the whole thing with Hollow Earth never existed. Though, that would mean no time travel and new Sanctuary, boo. It would also mean no Ashley, (my story deviates with Ashley saving herself ) as Amanda Tapping admitted that they intended for Helen to have found a way to save Ashley on her journey back through time in Season 5. I kind of changed that part to introduce my OC instead. However there still could be an Ashley even without time travel as the writers could have set it up so they found Ashley at a lab/facility or having amnesia, etc.


	11. Ch 11: 2009

_Author's Note_: Apologies in advance. This chapter isn't finished and I'll be editing over the next couple days/week or so to add the remainder to it, so please be patient with me. I know I shouldn't be adding unfinished chapters, but I've had this piece for over 8 months now since last early August of 2019, it's now late April 2020 and it wraps up the last scene from Chapter 10. I took a break from writing (I did not intend for it to be this long between uploads), as at the time I had been pumping out a lot of this story over a course of a few days and started to get a bit tired trying to keep up the pace, then I honestly got distracted with life (family and a new job recently), editing the Sanctuary Wiki plus another TV show wiki. I didn't run out of ideas, as I actually wrote the last chapter that I wanted for this story at the same time when I was writing Chapter 9 and 10 and it's been just sitting on my computer since then, sadly. It's a small epilogue, but kinda funny (it hearkens back to a previous chapter), and I really want to share it with you but I can't as the story hasn't gotten there yet. It's just that this part here in this Chapter with my OC finally getting involved with the city and other characters such as potentially Adam and Ranna has always been very elusive for me to try to find a way to create drama and play the scenes out over the next two years or so? I had "bits" I envisioned to write for this story way near the end of this particular segment, when the city ultimately gets destroyed and afterward, it's just getting there through this section that's the problem. I think this story as a whole will only last maybe another 4-5 chapters or so, probably less depending on word count and how much I want to stretch it. Could be 2-3 very large uploads instead, we'll see what creativity I can squeeze out of my brain.

Also, to note, I had been going back and editing a few other published chapters fairly recently, slightly polishing them up a bit, making minor tweaks. Nothing major, but I did add some paragraphs here or there to 4, 8, and 9. (4 - added at the end of the chapter about Ashley's new reality, 8 - added the creating and decorating of the nursery, 9 - added to Tristan and his schooling and struggles etc. making it more fleshed out). Just thought I'd make that known to readers about what's new or changed. :) Hard to believe that it's been a whole year already since I first put up this story. It really doesn't feel like that much time has passed.

* * *

**Late 2009**

As the two men in front of them flashed out of the room, it left Ashley and Helen in a somewhat dazed state of not really knowing what to do with themselves in regards as to how to handle this new development, and so they just kind of stood there next to their chairs looking at each other and around at the room.

"I… I can't believe he really just did that… bringing Grandpa here… telling him everything…" Ashley said of her brother as she finally sat down in her seat to poke at her salad with her fork while lightly shaking her head in disbelief.

Her mother gave a sigh of contempt as she followed Ashley's lead and also sat to resume eating her own salad as well. "I can" Helen almost huffed.

Ashley looked up at her with narrowed eyes from across the table. "Wait, so you knew he would do that?" she questioned as she still absently toyed with her utensil on the plate as her thoughts were pretty much anywhere else other than on eating at this particular moment.

"Not exactly, no. I didn't bank on it, but I had figured that there was some small probability that he would accidentally error somewhere along the way. I'm just relieved that it didn't happen any sooner than it did and that it was only with your Grandfather currently instead of with anyone else such as Ranna or Adam." Helen replied just before stabbing her fork into the leafy greens to take a bite.

Ashley gave a little nod as her thoughts shifted with some understanding. "As much as Tristan randomly showing up here with Grandpa freaked me out, making me think he could have just ruined future history, at the same time it does make me feel a lot better in knowing that Grandpa is now aware of the danger that he is in and the what and when to look out for it."

"This unexpected turn of events does make me feel better too." Helen agreed. "Even though it wasn't exactly what we had planned to happen, the outcome of that change luckily makes things a lot easier on Tristan as now he has help in getting into the city and basically doesn't have to be two places at once anymore; reducing his efforts down to focus on secretly tracking a single target instead of two. It gives me some comfort to know that he now has an ally down there."

Ashley gave a tiny smile and pointed out some good news. "Seems like Tristan and Grandpa are like each other's guardian angels right now."

"That they are" Helen replied with a dimple in her cheek as she stuck her fork into another piece of tasty foliage.

Back at the outpost, after a small discussion, Tristan followed Gregory out of the small building and over to where his Grandfather was meeting with his team. Between the two of them, they had decided that Tristan's cover story would be that Gregory thought that he would be a fine candidate for their medical school program in Praxis for General Surgery. It would be a very believable alibi for Tristan as to why he would be brought along with them to the city and as for why he was to remain in the city for an extended period of time rather than almost immediately returning back to the farms. While the city itself was highly medically advanced and nanotechnology took care of most surgical procedures to a certain extent, the outposts and nomadic tribes however sorely lacked the resources and still relied heavily on a physician physically operating on patients. Being that Tristan was now practicing as a nomadic healer, it would be a great benefit for him to learn to become a proper field trauma surgeon; it was a skill area that he lacked in as his current medical specialty of being an Internist didn't include cutting people open.

Since Gregory was a highly respected citizen and medical professional in Praxis, and not to mention the leader of this expeditionary team, his word was as good as gold. The rest of his team members easily accepted the reasoning without issue, bringing the new lad on board with them. Since Gregory was part of the Praxian Medical Guild, it was easy for him to take one of his electronic database tablets and access Tristan's file. He not only updated the young man's clearance level, but also enrolled him into the school. Since Tristan wasn't a Praxian citizen, his entrance and residency in the city would have to be sponsored by Gregory himself. While it may seem a bit suspicious by some, it actually wasn't out-of-character for the elder Magnus as he frequently scouted the lands on his trips for fresh talent that had great scientific and medical potential. The people of Praxis would be none-the-wiser as Tristan would just be another student on the long list of people Gregory has supported over the years.

While the medical team packed-up their gear up before they left to go to the transport pod, Tristan made his way back over to his group to inform them of the great opportunity he was offered from Dr. Magnus and told them that he accepted the deal and would unfortunately be leaving their group to stay in the city. While the farmers were a bit sad to see him go, as they had come to like him and began to see him as one of their own, they understood the importance behind how this would elevate his status in Hollow Earth. When Gregory called over to him, indicating that it was time to leave to head back to the city, both Tristan and the farmers thanked each other for their help over this past year and waved their respective goodbyes as they departed for their own separate ways.

Even though on the surface Tristan had ridden in rail systems many times before and had seen the Praxian spherical transport pod in action as he traded, being in one for the first time was still a really cool experience. Being able to whiz thousands of miles across the globe through the Earth's crust in a relatively short amount of time of a couple hours was nothing short of amazing. Well, at least he thought so until his scale of 'amazing' changed when they had finally arrived at their destination and he stepped out of the pod and took in the breathtaking site of the hidden city. Gregory couldn't help but display a pride-filled smile as he heard his grandson let out a wondrous "Bloody hell" that was perfectly reminiscent of his mother.


End file.
